In the second quarter of 2022, Estonian residents travelled much more than in the second quarter of last year: the number of domestic trips grew by 45% and the number of outbound trips by 319%, that is, over three times, as reported by Statistics Estonia.
In the second quarter of this year, Estonian residents made 309 000 outbound and 684 000 domestic overnight trips. In total, residents of Estonia spent 1.4 million nights on domestic trips and 1.8 million nights on outbound trips.
Epp Remmelg, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the increase in the number of trips of Estonian residents in the second quarter was due to the low reference base of last year. «According to the survey on the travelling of Estonian residents, 2018 and 2019 were the busiest years for travelling in the last decade.
Travelling was drastically curbed by the coronavirus pandemic, but there are now signs of recovery.
The number of trips made this year is still below the level of the record years, but it is comparable to the figures of the period before that,» said Remmelg.
The number of outbound trips made in the second quarter of 2022 corresponded to two thirds of the number of outbound trips made during the peak period of travelling (2018–2019). At the same time, there was more outbound travelling than in the second quarter of 2017.
Residents of Estonia travel abroad to visit friends and relatives
During the pandemic, the numbers of business trips and visits to friends dropped to a minimum, but there is now an increase in these types of trips. In the second quarter, there were 57 000 outbound business trips, which is similar to the second quarter of 2017. «There has been a sharp upturn in the number of trips made by Estonian residents to visit friends and family abroad, which they had postponed for years. In the second quarter, Estonian residents spent a total of 515 000 nights abroad staying with friends or relatives, which is virtually the same as in the second quarter of 2019,» said Remmelg.
Residents of Estonia spent 959,000 nights in rented accommodation abroad.
In the second quarter, the average total expenditure on an outbound overnight trip was 944 euros per person, which is a quarter more than in 2019. «Compared with the second quarter of 2021, there has been no rise in average expenditure, since the nature of travelling was different during the pandemic – people no longer made short, low-cost trips to nearby countries, and stopped visiting friends abroad. By now, the structure of trips is again the same as before the crisis,» explained Remmelg.
As before, many people travel to nearby countries: Latvia (34 000 trips in the second quarter), Finland (29 000 trips) and Sweden (23 000 trips). Italy and Turkey were also among the popular destinations. Travelling to Russia has stopped almost completely. The number of outbound trips with a duration of one – three nights is bouncing back – it was 115 000 in the second quarter, which is seven times higher than in the same quarter last year.
Half of domestic trips are made for holidays and leisure; the number of business trips is slowly rising again.
In the second quarter, Estonian residents made 684 000 overnight trips within Estonia. 347 000 of these were holiday trips, while 250 000 trips were made to visit friends and 63 000 trips were business-related. «In the second quarter, the number of domestic trips was primarily boosted by visits to friends and relatives (which doubled), and by the steady rise in the number of business trips. Compared with the pre–pandemic period, almost every second domestic business trip took place now,» said Remmelg.
89% of overnight domestic trips were short, with up to three nights spent away. About a tenth of domestic trips lasted for 47–days. The average expenditure on a domestic trip was 159 euros per person, which is 25 euros less than in the second quarter of last year but a third more than in 2019 before the pandemic.