Tourists increasingly favor Tallinn over other Estonian destinations

Tourism data for July show that foreign visitors are concentrating more on Tallinn, where overnight stays hit a record, while numbers around the capital and elsewhere in Estonia remain below pre-pandemic levels, ERR reported.

Accommodation providers hosted 964,000 tourists in July, compared with more than one million in July 2019. Tallinn recorded 455,000 overnight stays this July, above the pre-pandemic figure of 399,000 foreign visitors. The number of tourists staying around Tallinn is still one-fifth lower than seven years ago.

“Tallinn is probably the most prominent destination,” said Mihkel Nestor, an economic analyst at SEB. He said tourism depends heavily on how aware visitors from farther away are of places to visit elsewhere in Estonia. Getting tourists to travel beyond Tallinn has always been difficult, he added.

Finns made up a third of tourists in the capital in July, with 145,000 visitors, slightly more than 20,000 above the figure a year earlier. Harles Tammeleht, chief executive of Mercure hotels, said more Finns are visiting Tallinn than ever, while their numbers are falling elsewhere in Harju County and in destinations such as Pärnu and Kuressaare, which previously drew many visitors from Finland.

Nestor linked the trend mainly to Finland’s economic situation. Tourism there has begun to improve and Finns are travelling abroad more, he said, but added that travel is difficult when one in 10 people is unemployed.

Tammeleht also pointed to demographic changes and shifting preferences among younger generations. He said fewer visitors now seek the kind of health treatments traditionally offered by spas, which may be contributing to declines in Pärnu and Saaremaa.

Finnish visitors generally stay for one or two nights, with entertainment, holidays and cheaper alcohol among the reasons for their trips. Visitors interviewed by ERR described a range of plans: Minna and Erika said they had come with their choir and stayed for two days to sing; Tumppi said he had come with friends to buy alcohol; and Kira was in Tallinn to celebrate her 40th birthday.