Published on : Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Helsinki’s accommodation providers recorded approximately 3.3 million overnight stays (bednights) in 2014.
The number is very similar to the level recorded in 2013, even though the number of overnight stays by visitors from Russia declined by approximately 22 percent.
Russia nevertheless remains the biggest source of visitors to Helsinki despite the increasing number of visitors from other markets. Business travel saw an upswing in 2014 while the amount of leisure travel to Helsinki decreased somewhat.
The number of overnight stays in Helsinki remained almost unchanged in 2014, increasing by just 0.6 percent compared to 2013.
By comparison, the number of overnight stays in Finland as a whole decreased by 2.3 percent. With the exception of January, the number of overnight stays by visitors from Russia decreased each month in 2014.
This trend accelerated towards the end of the year, and by December visitors from Russia accounted for 54 percent less overnight stays than they did in the previous year.
“It was encouraging to note the strong increase in the numbers of visitors from other countries in December, such as Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Japan.
This helped offset the dramatic fall in the number of visitors from Russia,” says Tuulikki Becker, CEO of Visit Helsinki.
In 2014, Helsinki attracted a growing number of visitors from major incoming markets such as the USA (+9.2%), Great Britain (+4.5%) and Sweden (+3.1%).
The number of overnight stays by visitors from China grew by 5.7 percent, while significant increases were also posted for Italy, Spain and Norway.
The number of overnight stays by domestic visitors increased by 2.6 percent in Helsinki, compared to a decrease of 2.1 percent for domestic visitors in Finland as a whole.
Business travel in Helsinki recovered last year and accounted for the overall growth in overnight stays.
Leisure travel nevertheless still accounts for a higher proportion of total overnight stays compared to business travel.
The room occupancy rate among accommodation providers in Helsinki remained largely unchanged compared to the previous year at 67.8 percent.Despite the recent trend, visitors from Russia still accounted for the largest share of overnight stays compared to visitors from other countries.
However, the number of visitors from Russia is expected to continue to fall at least in the early part of 2015.
“It will be interesting to see whether Russia can maintain its top position as an incoming market for visitors to Helsinki this year.
We have invested heavily in our marketing activities aimed at the Russia market recently, especially by developing our Russian-language website and by carrying out social media marketing campaigns.
We have not made any radical changes to our plans either,” Tuulikki Becker adds.
Tags: Hotel News, The number of overnight stays in Helsinki remained almost unchanged last year despite significantly fewer visitors from Russia
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