Finland Times

A total of 525,000 foreign tourists stayed in Finland hotels and other accommodation establishments for night during the December 2012. The number  is 4.5 percent higher compared to the December 2011, according to Statistics Finland.
Besides that 818,000 resident tourists stayed in the hotel in December last year, which was 1.8 percent higher than the previous year.
 The report of Statistics Finland released here last week also showed that  the total number of overnight stays increased by 2.8 per cent from the year before.
Russians and Britishs were the largest groups of foreign tourists in December 2012. Accommodation establishments recorded 160,000 overnight stays for Russian tourists and good 114,000 overnight stays for British tourists.
Swedish and Japanese tourists overnight stays increased by 2-3 per cent compared to December 2011. By contrast, nights spent in Finland by visitors from the other most important inbound tourism countries decreased from the year before.
The biggest drops were seen in overnight stays by Norwegians, 15.9 percent and by Italians, 15.4 per cent. Overnight stays by Spanish visitors decreased by 13.5 per cent, and those by visitors from France by 12.9 per cent compared to 2011.
Accommodation establishments recorded 10.2 per cent less overnight stays by Estonian visitors compared to December 2011.
By region, the total number of overnight stays increased most in December 2012 in Central Ostrobothnia, up by 15.4 per cent. In Kymenlaakso, overnight stays grew by 12.6 per cent, in North Karelia by 12.0 per cent and in Lapland by 10.4 per cent. Overnight stays decreased most in Åland, 7.9 per cent down, and in Varsinais-Suomi, 6.5 per cent down. Overnight stays in the whole country increased by 2.8 per cent from last year.