Foreign tourist inflow ebbs 4% in May

The number of overnight stays of foreign tourists at Finnish accommodation establishments decreased in May 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

About 413,000 overnight stays were recorded in May, which was 3.9 per cent lower than one year before.

In contrast, the number of nights spent by domestic tourists, however, increased by 2.2 per cent and they spent good one million nights at the accommodation establishments.

In total, Finnish accommodation establishments recorded close on 1.5 million overnight stays, which was nearly the same as in May 2017, up by just 0.4 per cent.

Swedes were the largest group of foreign tourists in May 2018. A total of 48,000 overnight stays were recorded for them, which was, however, 6.2 per cent lower than that in the previous year.

Russians were in the second position with 37,000 nights spent, even though the number fell by as much as 25 per cent from that in the previous year. German visitors made up the third largest group with 36,000 overnight stays. The figure was 2.5 per cent higher than one year previously. Visitors from USA and UK came next. A total of 26,000 overnight stays were recorded for visitors from the United States, up by 5.8 per cent from the previous year. By contrast, overnight stays by British visitors decreased by 8.6 per cent from last year with almost 24,000 overnight stays recorded for them.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by Norwegians increased most in May. Nearly 15,000 overnight stays were recorded for them, which was 29.0 per cent more than one year before. About the same number of overnight stays was recorded for Estonian visitors, but their overnight stays decreased by 7.7 per cent year-on-year.

In addition to Russians, big decreases were seen in the overnight stays of French and Swiss tourists in May 2018. Overnight stays by French visitors decreased by 21.3 per cent, and those by visitors from Switzerland by 15.1 per cent compared to May 2017.