Economics, Estonia, Tourism

In the year 2008, Estonia earned 17.6 billion kroons from foreign tourism - 9.3 per cent more than a year before.

"Estonia's last year tourism revenue also exceeded the result achieved in 2006 by 4.4 per cent," said Piret Kallas, the co-ordinator of tourism surveys at the foundation Enterprise Estonia. She added that the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists grew as did the amounts they spent in Estonia.

Last year, foreign tourists spent nearly 13 billion kroons in Estonia and money paid by visitors from abroad to Estonian transportation enterprises amounted to nearly 4.8 billion kroons.

There were 1.97 million foreign tourists staying in Estonia last year - by 3.7 per cent more than in 2007. 1.43 million of them stayed in accommodation establishments. The number of overnight stays of foreign tourists in accommodation establishments grew less than the number of tourists. This was mostly due to the fact that the number of nights on spa and treatment trips continued falling.