Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Tourism, Transport

Finland's and Estonia's economies become increasingly more integrated, the expert pointed out.

"Finnish tourists' impact on Estonia's economy is bigger than the whole agriculture sector. Despite that, the Ministry of Agriculture employees around 300 officials, while the tourism development center under Enterprise Estonia has just two people whose assignment is to take care of the flow of tourism coming from Finland," Savikko, the Editor in Chief of the free tourist publication The Baltic Guide, wrote for uudised.err.ee.

According to official data from Estonian and Finnish authorities, around 2.5 million Finnish residents spend a total of around 5.5 million days in Estonia annually. The average Finnish tourist spends 150-300 euros per day while in Estonia, Savikko said.

Each year, Finnish nationals are estimated to consume around 500 million euros worth of goods in Estonia, he said, but the real figures are likely to be even higher than official ones (as can be calculated from the official number of tourists and average spending). Some sources say Finns spend that much money on alcohol alone, he said.

"Unfortunately this issue has not been studied enough to have any convincing numbers," Savikko said.

As reported, the most popular destination for Finnish residents for travelling with a nigh stay in September-December last year was Estonia, followed by Sweden.

Finns came to neighbouring Estonia with at least one overnight stay 434,000 times in September-December last year.

Finland's residents also show great interest in Estonia-based properties due to relatively low price and convenient location.

The number of tourists from Finland, which showed a downward trend in most months of the year, fell 1% (by 11,000 tourists) in 2012 as a whole.