Estonia is a popular destination for tourists
Text Johanna Heinonen Photo Andrei Chertkov
According to Statistics Estonia, a total of 205,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments in Estonia in January 2025, which is 6 percent more than a year earlier. The number of foreign tourists increased by 15 percent, while the number of domestic tourists decreased by 1 percent.
Helga Laurmaa, Chief Analyst at Statistics Finland, says that of the tourists accommodated in January, 95,000 were foreign, and 110,000 were domestic. The number of domestic tourists was lower than a year earlier, and a decline was noticeable in several months of 2024. Overall, the number of tourists in January was 8 percent lower than in January 2020, when tourism was still at its peak before the pandemic. “Compared to the time before the crisis, the number of domestic tourists increased by 15,000, but the number of foreign tourists was 33,000 lower,” Laurmaa adds.
A third of tourists in Estonia are Finnish
In January, 30,000 tourists arrived from Finland, which is equivalent to 32 percent of all foreign tourists. There were 18,000 Latvian tourists (19%), and Lithuania and the United Kingdom each had approximately 5000 tourists (5% of foreign tourists). Compared to 2024, the number of Finnish tourists increased by 23 percent, Latvian tourists by 14 percent, Lithuanian tourists by 13 percent, and British tourists by 3 percent.
Of foreign tourists, 78 percent were on holiday, and 17 percent were on business. The most popular accommodation area was Tallinn and Harju County, where 77 percent of foreign tourists used overnight accommodations. Pärnu County attracted 11 percent, Tartu 6 percent, and Ida-Viru County 2 percent of foreign tourists. Lääne-Viru, Saare, Valga and Võru Counties each attracted approximately 1 percent of foreign tourists.
Of domestic tourists, 72 percent were on a holiday trip, and 19 percent were on a business trip. The most popular region was Harju County (32% of domestic tourists), followed by Pärnu (14%), Tartu (11%), Ida-Viru County (10%), and Valga (8%).
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