Foreign tourist number down

TALLINN - According to Statistics Estonia, in April 2013, 192,000 foreign and domestic tourists stayed in accommodation establishments, which was 6 percent less than in the same month of the previous year; the number of domestic tourists increased and the number of foreign tourists decreased, the numbers show, reports LETA.

In April, 125,500 foreign tourists used the services of accommodation establishments, which was 13 percent less than in the same month a year ago. Seventy percent of foreign tourists arrived from the neighboring countries Finland, Russia and Latvia. 19,000 tourists arrived from Russia, which was 7 percent more than a year ago. The number of tourists from Latvia and Finland decreased by 23 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Compared to April of the previous year, fewer tourists arrived from all main partner countries of Estonia, only the number of tourists arriving from Lithuania increased (by 5 percent).

In April, nearly three quarters of foreign tourists using the services of accommodation establishments stayed in Tallinn, followed by Parnu and Tartu. In April, only 13 percent of all foreign tourists used the services of accommodation establishments outside these cities.

In April, 66,600 domestic tourists stayed in accommodation establishments, which was 8 percent more than in the same month of the previous year. Less than half of domestic tourists (44 percent) used the services of accommodation establishments of Tallinn, Tartu and Parnu. The preferred counties by domestic tourists were also Ida-Viru, Laane-Viru and Saare counties, where 10 percent, 7 percent and 7 percent of domestic tourists stayed, respectively.

In April, 880 accommodation establishments offered services for tourists. 18,000 rooms and 40,000 beds were available for tourists. The room occupancy rate was 40 percent and the bed occupancy rate 31 percent. The room occupancy and the bed occupancy rates were higher than the Estonian average in the accommodation establishments of Tallinn, Tartu and Parnu. Outside of these cities the room occupancy rate and the bed occupancy rate were lower, at 24 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

The average cost of a guest night was 32 euros and was one euro more expensive than in April of the previous year.