Cbank: Estonian residents travel 4 pct less on year in Q1

TALLINN – Residents of Estonia visited foreign countries on 730,000 occasions in the first quarter of 2019, which was 4 percent less than a year earlier, the Bank of Estonia said.

Visits were down 6 percent to countries of the European Union, and people from Estonia made one fifth fewer visits to Austria, Lithuania and Poland. There was a notable increase in visits to Egypt, Norway, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, the central bank said.

There were 4 percent fewer overnight visits, but their average length rose to four nights. Same-day trips accounted for 15 percent of the total, and they fell in number by 3 percent.

Tourists from Estonia spent an estimated 225 million euros abroad in the first quarter, which was 5 million euros more than in the same quarter of last year.

Around one million foreign visitors came to Estonia in the first quarter, which was 4 percent down on year. Some 350,000 tourists came from Finland, but this was 7 percent fewer than a year before.

There was a small rise in the number of visitors from elsewhere in the European Union, as 28 percent more tourists came from Belgium and 20 percent more from the Netherlands. There were 200,000 visits to Estonia by residents of Russia, which is 6 percent fewer than a year earlier, but still one fifth of all tourist visits.

There were 4 percent fewer overnight visitors to Estonia in the first quarter than in the same quarter of last year, and the average overnight visitor stayed for three nights.

Foreign tourists visiting Estonia spent an estimated 220 million euros in the first quarter, which is 5 million euros less than in the first quarter of 2018.