Estonia conducting tourism campaigns in all nearest markets

TALLINN - The Tourist Board of the joint agency of Enterprise Estonia and the Kredex foundation has launched extensive tourism campaigns in all nearest markets to restore revenues from the export of tourism as soon as possible during the ongoing tourism season.

Campaigns have been launched in Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, according to the joint agency.

"There is a different message for each of the markets -- with the Finns, it's about Talsinki and the cities being 'same, same but different'; with the Swedes, we're encouraging them to abandon boring correctness and routine, and towards the south we're making fun of ourselves as the slow northern neighbor where holidays and good times last longer," director of the Tourist Board Liina Maria Lepik said, summing up the campaigns.

Lepik noted that the only market in Estonia's neighborhood that has bounced back in terms of tourism is Latvia, the volumes of which already exceed pre-crisis levels by a quarter. The aim is to also win back the remaining markets in the near future.

The latest statistics on accommodation are from April and even though the results have improved with each passing month, the number of nights by foreign tourists was still lower by one-third compared with 2019.

"It is uplifting that while the start of the crisis turned tourism volumes in Estonia back by 20 years, in recent months we've now arrived at the result we had 10 years ago. 10 years in a few months is a good achievement, but we still have 10 more years to go, so to speak," Lepik said. Before the crisis, tourism was an important source of external revenue for Estonia, accounting for one-third of the export of services.

The campaigns are conducted in digital, print and outdoor media, supported by materials on Estonia in major publications, such as Helsingin Sanomat, Ilta-Sanomat, Perfect Guide, Dagens Nyheter, Ieva, Zmones, Savaite.