Tourism from abroad increased in 2011 - Border Interview Survey: Foreign Visitors in Finland in 2011
In 2011, Finland received 7.3 million foreign visitors. The number of foreign visitors increased by 17 per cent from the year 2010, or by one million visitors. Foreign visitors brought EUR 2.2 billion to Finland, which was approximately EUR 180 million more than in the previous year. These data derive from the Border Interview Survey by Statistics Finland and Finnish Tourist Board.
Visitors from Russia comprised the largest visitor group. Forty-five per cent of the visitors, or approximately 3.3 million visitors in total, came from Russia. Compared with the previous year, travel from Russia to Finland increased by 27 per cent. The second largest group of visitors came from Estonia. The number of visitors from Estonia grew by 26 per cent from the previous year. During the year, a total of 708,000 Estonian visitors travelled to Finland and their share of the total number of passengers was 10 per cent. For the first time the number and share of Estonian visitors exceeded the number and share of Swedish visitors.
In 2011, 53 per cent of the foreign visitors were on a leisure trip in Finland. The number of laisure trips increased by 21 per cent from the previous year. Twelve per cent came to see friends or relatives. Their number increased by 16 per cent from the previous year. Twenty-one per cent of the visitors came to Finland on business. The number of business trips increased 11 per cent from the previous year, but in all the share of business travellers in the total number of travellers has decreased in the past six years. Nine per cent of the visitors were on a transit trip through Finland.
In 2011, nearly half of the foreign travellers stayed at hotels or motels in Finland. The number of hotel nights increased 16 per cent from the previous year. In 2011, foreign travellers stayed an average of 4.1 nights in Finland. Forty-two per cent of the trips to Finland did not include an overnight stay. Visitors from Russia made the highest number of same-day visits to Finland; over two-thirds of them did not stay overnight. Yet in total, visitors from Estonia and Russia spent the highest numbers of nights in Finland.
The average amount of money foreign visitors spent while in Finland was EUR 306 in 2011. The total expenditure of visitors per trip was seven per cent less than in the year before. The largest sums of money per visit were spent by visitors from China, EUR 670 on average. The average expenditure of foreign travellers was EUR 60 per day. This was two euroa less than in the previous year. The highest amount of money per day was spent by visitors living in Russia. The average expenditure of visitors from Russia was EUR 111 per day.
You can download the full report in PDF format:
Border Interview Survey 2011 (MEK A:172, 2012)
The main aim of the Border Interview Survey is to establish how many people resident in other countries visit Finland. The survey also aims to find out some basic information about these visitors, such as their country of residence, nationality, main reason for visiting Finland, duration of visit and possible type of accommodation. The special areas studied with the survey also include the visitors’ use of money in Finland, the activities they participated in while in Finland and diverse things having to do with the planning of the trip.
Further information about earlier surveys please contact kirsi.suni(at)visitfinland.com
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