The last quarter summed up a moderately positive year for tourism. In 2022, domestic demand reached a new record in Helsinki, Uusimaa and the whole country.
The clear growth trend that started in spring 2022 and was driven by strong domestic demand continued in the last quarter of 2022. The growth in tourism demand did not get off to a good start until the spring, which can be seen in the statistics for the whole year, which are still rather far from the figures in 2019. In 2022, the total number of overnight stays in Helsinki was 17 per cent lower than in 2019. In Uusimaa, the difference was 15 per cent and in the whole country five per cent. If the demand had started to recover from the low of the COVID-19 crisis a few months earlier, the demand for the whole year would have been close to the pre-pandemic level.
In the last quarter of 2022, 11 per cent fewer overnight stays were registered in Helsinki than in the corresponding period of 2019. However, the number of domestic overnight stays reached a new record. The number of foreign overnight stays decreased by over a quarter. Unlike in Helsinki and Uusimaa, the number of domestic overnight stays in the whole country fell slightly below the level of the exceptional year 2021 in the last quarter.