Overnight stays by foreign tourists up 21.4% in March

More foreign tourists spent nights in Finnish accommodation establishments in March this year and the overnight stays by the tourists increased by 21.4 per cent compared to the stipulated period of the previous year.

In March the number of nights spent by foreign tourists was 515,000 higher than the number in March 2017, according to the Statistics Finland.

However, the number of nights spent by resident tourists went down by 1.9 per cent and totalled good 1.2 million overnight stays in March.

A total of nearly 1.8 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments in March 2017, which was 3.9 per cent more than in March 2016.

These figures are preliminary data from Statistics Finland’s statistics on accommodation establishments and they have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

Nearly 53,500 million overnight stays were recorded for Russian visitors at Finnish accommodation establishments, which was 35.2 per cent more than in March 2016. Russians were the biggest group of visitors in March.

Most overnight stays by Russians were recorded in Uusimaa, nearly 15,000 nights, and in South Karelia, 12,200 nights. Overnight stays recorded for Chinese visitors increased by 67.1 per cent, and good 16,700 nights were recorded for them at accommodation establishments in March 2017.

Chinese visitors stayed overnight mainly in Uusimaa, nearly 7,700 nights, and in Lapland with 6,900 nights spent. The share of Uusimaa in all overnight stays by foreign visitors was nearly 37 per cent and that of Lapland around 34 per cent.

The effect of international winter sports events is visible in overnight stays by foreign visitors in March. Overnight stays recorded for Germans increased by 10.4 per cent year-on-year and totalled nearly 50,500 at accommodation establishments. For the whole country, Germans were the second largest group of foreign tourists in March 2017 Swedes took the third place with good 38,000 nights spent, which was one-quarter more than in 2016. French and British visitors came next. Good 35,700 overnight stays were recorded for French visitors at accommodation establishments, which was 16.3 per cent more than one year before. Overnight stays recorded for British visitors grew by 7.2 per cent from the year before and numbered nearly 34,000.

Overnight visits by tourists from almost all the most important countries of inbound tourism into Finland increased in March. In addition to those mentioned above, overnight stays by Japanese tourists increased by 43 per cent, those by Norwegians by 35 per cent and those by tourists from the United States by good 31 per cent compared to 2016. Of the most important countries of tourism, overnight stays by only Spanish visitors diminished. For them, the decline was around 15 per cent.