Alcohol, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Markets and Companies, Retail

The purchases of Finnish tourists form 34% of alcohol sales in Estonian stores.

"The main alcohol shopping venues of Finnish tourists are ships and port stores," said TNS Emor's research expert Aivar Voog. "2% of Finns buy alcohol to go from Estonia up to three times a month, 7% buy 3–5 times in six months and 32% 1–2 times in six months."

While alcohol consumption among Estonians is decreasing, the sale of alcohol (absolute alcohol amount) in Estonian retail trade grew by 1.1% in 2013 while in monetary value it grew by over 5%.

"This growth is contributed mainly by Finnish tourists whose alcohol purchases formed in volume terms 34% of the total alcohol sale in Estonia last year," said Voog.

The purchase volumes of weaker alcoholic beverages by tourists grew over 15% while Finns also tend to prefer strong alcohol less.

10.59 litres of absolute alcohol per capital was consumed in Estonia in 2011, in 2012 the figure was 10.33 litres and in 2013, it was 10.14 litres.

TNS Emor polled over a thousand Finns for the study in cooperation with TNS Gallup.