Analytics, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Latvia, Tourism

For the Estonian tourism industry, 2014 was the most successful year in the last five years. Last year 1.98 million foreign tourists stayed overnight in the accommodation establishments of Estonia, and that is a growth of 2% since 2013.

Altogether, accommodations in Estonia were used 3.92 million times last year. Furthermore, both the number of foreign tourists and the number of local travelers increased to a new record high. In absolute figures, the number of German tourists who used overnight accommodations recorded the biggest increase, followed by Latvian, U.S. and Japanese tourists.

3,087,070 tourists spent at least one night in Estonia last year, from which 112,703 were Latvian tourists. It is a 7% growth, in comparison to 2013.

The number of nights spent by foreign and domestic tourists in the accommodation establishments amounted to 5.8 million.

More travelers used accommodation establishments for holiday purposes last year, but the number of business travelers decreased.

2014 was a very successful year also according to data from the Bank of Estonia – income from tourism reached EUR 1.39 billion in 2014, the highest figure in four years.

"We see that people travel more to Estonia, and we are happy that so many Latvians visit Estonia to see the most beautiful Estonian cities with a variety of entertainment for all. The last few years show that more families and schoolchildren groups from Latvia visit Estonia, and they are most interested in museums and thematic leisure time activities. Although Latvians always have been visiting Tallinn the most, last year a huge inflow of Latvian tourists was observed in Parnu, probably because the Lottemaa Theme Park opened in the summer of 2014, and a substantial number of Latvian families visited this place," commented Tarmo Mutso, head of the Estonian Tourist Board.

The biggest number of tourists visited Tallinn, Parnu was second in popularity, followed by Tartu, Ida-Viru County, Saare County, and other places in Estonia. Latvian tourists stayed overnight in Tallinn the most – 41%. 14% of Latvian tourists stayed in Parnu, 12% went to Saaremaa but others chose other regions.

Parnu, also known as the Estonian summer vacations capital because of its beautiful beaches and resorts, is attractive to tourists also in the colder months of the year, because there are many SPAs, as well as the recently opened Lottemaa Theme Park, which attracts a large number of families with children. Also, Tartu is becoming more popular among tourists, for Latvian tourists it is just few hour drive from the capital city, Riga. Here one of the favorite tourism objects is the science center "Ahhaa".