Estonia, Latvia, Statistics, Tourism

Last year Estonian residents made 606,000 trips with overnight stays to neighboring countries. Latvia was the most popular destination of such trips, followed by Finland, Russia, Sweden and Lithuania, Statistics Estonia said on its blog.

Estonia was also a very popular destination for Latvians. According to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Latvian residents traveled to Estonia on 173,000 occasions last year, which is 14% of all trips with overnight stays made by Latvians last year and more than a third of all trips made by Latvians to neighboring countries.

The biggest share of trips with overnight stays are made by Estonians in the third quarter, or the summer.

Last year 48% of trips abroad with overnight stays lasted one to three nights, based on which Statistics Estonia concludes that people prefer to get away for the weekend. About a third of trips lasted four to seven days and about a quarter more than seven days.

According to data published by Eurostat, Estonians spend on average 566 euros on trips, while Latvians spend 341 euros. According to Statistics Estonia, the reason behind that is that Latvia has its own airline which takes Latvians directly and for lower prices than on average to many destinations.