Finland Times

Accommodation establishments in Finland recorded nearly 19.8 million overnight stays, of which domestic tourists accounted for 14.2 million and foreign tourists for 5.5 million in 2015.

The foreign demand for accommodation services declined by 3.5 per cent, while the domestic demand grew by 1.1 per cent compared with the previous year.

The total demand for accommodation services declined by only 0.2 per cent in 2015, according to Statistics Finland’s data.

The year 2014 already indicated a slight petering out in the demand for accommodation services and in January 2015, the demand decreased further by close on eight per cent.

 A slight growth was achieved in February, but during spring, the demand for accommodation services decreased again until July when the demand increased by one per cent.

The remainder of the year showed a slight growth, apart from November when the demand decreased by three per cent as per the statistics collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

If the development of overnight stays by foreign visitors is examined excluding the steep decline in overnight stays by Russians, the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists went up by around eight per cent in 2015.

 Russians were, however, the largest group of foreign tourists in Finnish accommodation establishments in 2015. Nearly 783,000 overnight stays were recorded for Russians, which was as much as 41.6 per cent down on the year before.

 In 2015, Russian visitors accounted for 14 per cent of all overnight stays by foreign visitors, having been good 23 per cent twelve months earlier. Swedish, German and British visitors came next.  

Overnight stays by French tourists numbered 230,000, which was 6.8 per cent more than in 2014. Around 203,000 overnight stays were recorded for both Japanese and American tourists at accommodation establishments. Overnight stays by Japanese tourists increased by 5.9 per cent, while those by American tourists decreased by close on one per cent from 2014.

Close on 190,000 overnight stays were recorded for Norwegian and Estonian visitors. Overnight stays by Norwegian tourists increased by 3.9 per cent, while those by Estonian tourists decreased by the same amount.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by Chinese visitors increased most in 2015. They spent close on 182,000 nights in Finland, which was 41.3 per cent more than in 2014.

 Tourism from Switzerland also made a sharp upturn in July, which increased the total number of overnight stays by Swiss tourists by more than one-fifth in 2015.

Examined by continent, the biggest growth percentage came from Asia, where China and Japan boosted overnight stays to a growth of over 23 per cent, as overnight stays totalled 729,000, the data show.

The number of overnight stays by visitors from EU countries and African countries was nearly six per cent up on 2014. In total, overnight stays by visitors from EU countries amounted to good 2.9 million, while overnight stays by tourists from Africa were good 25,000.

Among the largest EU countries, inbound tourism increased by seven to nine per cent from France and Germany in 2015. Altogether 846,000 overnight stays were recorded for visitors from Nordic countries, which was 3.9 per cent more than in 2014.

Tourism from America increased by 4.8 per cent and overnight stays grew to good 294,000 in 2015.

In 2015, the total number of nights spent in hotels was 15.8 million, which was one per cent higher than in 2014. Recorded nights spent by resident tourists in hotels numbered 11.2 million and by foreign tourists 4.6 million.

The number of nights spent by resident tourists increased by 2.7 per cent while that of nights spent by foreign tourists decreased by the same amount from the year before.

Overnight stays at hotels covered 80 per cent of all overnight stays at accommodation establishments. The share of foreign tourists of overnight stays in hotels was 29 per cent and 28 per cent of all overnight stays at accommodation establishments.

The occupancy rate of hotel rooms for the whole country was 52.3 per cent in 2015 while it was 51.4 per cent one year earlier.

The average price of a hotel room has been growing since 2011, when the average price was EUR 88 and  it was EUR 92.09 in 2015.

In 2015, overnight stays increased in only a few of the regions in Mainland Finland. Overnight stays increased by four to five per cent in Ostrobothnia, Pirkanmaa and Uusimaa.