40% More Russian Tourists Visited Estonia in May, Official Data Shows

The numbers of Russian tourists visiting the neighboring Baltic country of Estonia has increased by 41% in May year-on-year, the Estonian state statistics service has revealed, according to ERR.

Finnish tourists were the most numerous visitors in Estonia during the month, with about a third coming from that country. Russian tourists made up 12 percent of tourists in Estonia, while 8% of them were Latvian, Statistics Estonia said. Nonetheless the number of tourists from Finland declined on the previous year, by 15 percent, the agency said. 

Visitors from Germany and Sweden were also more numerous in May.

Overall, tourism in Estonia saw a 6 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) rise to May 2019, Statistics Estonia said. A total of 322,000 people stayed in accommodation establishments in May 2019, a 6 percent rise on the previous year and with both domestic and foreign tourism seeing an increase.

The small Baltic nation was the seventh most popular destination for Russian tourists in 2017, and the number of trips by Russians to Estonia grew 14.4 percent on year to 1.7 million during that year, according to official data.

In 2018, Turkey remained the firm favorite for Russian tourists following its return to the market the previous year. A record-breaking 6 million visitors from Russia entered the Middle Eastern country last year.

Other key destinations for Russian tourists include Poland – 532,000, Italy – 498,000, Georgia – 483,000, Spain – 406,000, Azerbaijan – 349,000, Cyprus – 325,000, Greece – 300,000, Lithuania – 288,000, Vietnam – 281,000, Czech Republic – 250,000, France – 229,000, and Tunisia – 219,000.