According to Statistics Estonia’s Tourism Survey, Estonian residents made more trips in the first half of 2023 than in the same period of 2022. Finland and Latvia are the most popular destinations, and many trips are also made to Italy and Turkey.
Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, in the first six months of 2023, Estonian residents made more domestic trips and more outbound trips than in the same period of last year. “In the first half of this year, there were nearly 701,200 outbound overnight trips in total, which is 1.5 times more than in the first half of 2022. The number of domestic overnight trips made in the first six months of 2023 was about 1,375,100 which is 1.2 times more than last year,” added Saagpakk.
Saagpakk noted that Estonian residents mainly travel for holidays.
Travelling abroad for holidays, leisure and recreation is now just as popular as before the pandemic. “The number of overnight holiday trips made to other countries in the first six months of 2023 is on the same level as in the first half of 2019. There were 465,000 outbound holiday trips in the first half of this year,” said Saagpakk. Trips with a duration of one to three nights were the most common in the first quarter of 2023, while trips with a duration of four to seven nights held the biggest share in the second quarter of this year.
People are also travelling more around Estonia.
“The number of overnight domestic holiday trips made in the first half of the year exceeded the level of the first half of 2019. There were 770,770 such trips in total and their duration was usually one to three nights,” said Saagpakk.
Estonian residents are travelling more but the cost of travelling is also rising.
“Compared with the first half of 2022, the expenditure on outbound overnight trips has increased mainly due to greater transport costs,” said Saagpakk. In the first half of 2023, the average expenditure per person was 1,135 euros for an outbound overnight trip and about 170 euros for a domestic trip.