Foreign tourist inflow drops further in Sep

The growth in the number of nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland turned downwards in May and continued so for the entire summer, declining further in September, according to the Statistics Finland.

A total of 466,000 overnight stays were recorded for foreign visitors at Finnish accommodation establishments in September, which was 4.6 per cent lower than that in the same month in 2017. In contrast, the number of nights spent by domestic tourists remained on level with the previous year and they stayed overnight at accommodation establishments almost 1.3 million times.

In all, a good 1.7 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments, which was 1.3 per cent lower than in September 2017.

These figures are the preliminary data from the Statistics Finland on accommodation establishments collected from those establishments that have at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

Finnish accommodation establishments recorded close on 19,500 overnight stays for Estonian tourists and a good 9,000 for Italian visitors in September 2018. The number of overnight stays by Estonians increased by 16.1 per cent and those by Italian visitors by 17.1 per cent from September last year.

The top three stood out clearly from the rest. Swedes were the largest group of foreign tourists in September, with nearly 47,000 overnight stays, although the number declined by 10.5 per cent compared to September last year.

Russians came second with 42,000 overnight stays, which was 3.4 per cent lower than one year earlier. Germans came third with close on 40,000 overnight stays, posting a 5.8 per cent decline year on year. Chinese tourists continued in the fourth place with 33,000 overnight stays, marking a 10.8 per cent rise year on year.

The biggest declines in the number of nights spent by tourists by country came from Japan and Spain in September 2018. The overnight stays of Japanese visitors decreased by 16.7 per cent and those of Spanish tourists by 12.8 per cent from last year’s September. Close on 24,000 overnight stays were recorded for Japanese visitors at accommodation establishments, while overnight stays by Spanish visitors was close on 9,000.