Finnish Travel to Estonia Remains Stable—More Than Half of Overnight Stays Take Place Outside Hotels

Text Mikko Savikko
Photo Andrei Chertkov

Estonia’s tourism statistics for 2025 have been published. Figures calculated using different methods are consistent with each other, but they reveal a significant structural difference between official reporting and reality.

The Port of Tallinn records the total volume of passenger traffic. According to its statistics, the number of Finnish passengers increased by 0.1% from the previous year, totalling 1,849,000. This figure represents the number of trips made, not the number of individual people.

The Estonian Statistics Office—Statistikaamet—counts those who stayed in hotels and guesthouses. According to the statistics, 673,000 Finns stayed in accommodation establishments. They spent a total of 1.24 million nights there, an average of 1.8 nights.

The Bank of Estonia—Eesti Pank—monitors tourism using mobile positioning, which captures all visitors to the country. According to the central bank, 1.77 million Finns visited Estonia, of whom one million stayed overnight. The total number of overnight stays reached 2.5 million.

From these figures, it can be calculated that around 330,000 Finns spent the night somewhere other than registered accommodation. These travellers stayed longer in the country—on average nearly four nights.

In the Estonian media, reporting has focused on the decline in hotel overnight stays, which gives a distorted impression of the situation. In reality, half of the nights Finns spend in Estonia occur outside official statistics. It is therefore essential that Eesti Pank include in tourism revenue all travellers who bring currency into the country, regardless of where they stay.

Last year, foreign tourists brought €1.484 billion to Estonia. Finns accounted for 39% of this—almost €600 million. The next largest group in tourism revenue was visitors from Latvia (16%).

To learn more about this and similar topics
Bank of Estonia Estonian Statistics Office Port of Helsinki Statistics Tourism