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3. Travel reservations

3.1. Accommodation and tickets for leisure trips are mainly booked online

The Internet has already years ago established its position in making reservations for accommodation and means of travel for leisure trips. Of those who booked their ticket or accommodation in advance, the majority had made the reservation online in 2018.

For leisure trips with paid accommodation in Finland, 74 per cent of the accommodation was reserved through the Internet. Ninety-one per cent of domestic flights and 70 per cent of train journeys were reserved online.

Eighty-eight per cent reserved their accommodation for leisure trips abroad on the Internet. Ninety-four per cent of persons that flew on leisure trips abroad booked their tickets online. For boat trips, the corresponding figure was 82 per cent.

Of cruises with overnight stay on board, 79 per cent were reserved in advance on the Internet.

3.2. One-quarter of leisure trips were package tours

Even though independent travel has become considerably easier as the Internet has revolutionised the way in which trips are booked, package tours are not past history. Of leisure trips abroad including at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 26 per cent were package tours. In 2018, almost 1.7 million package tours were made abroad, which is unchanged from one year earlier.

In 2018, the most popular package tour destinations were Greece, the Canary Islands and Turkey. Of trips made to Greece, 74 per cent were package tours. People also favour package tours when travelling to the Canary Islands as 76 per cent of the trips there were package tours. In turn, only 20 per cent of the trips to Continental Spain or the Balearic Islands were package tours. Fifty-eight per cent of the trips to Turkey were package tours.

Of the 1.2 million leisure trips to Estonia, which included at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 32 per cent were package tours.

The popularity of package tours grows along with the age of the traveller. Of trips made by those aged 25 to 44 including overnight stays in the country of destination, 18 per cent were package tours, for those aged 45 to 64 altogether 28 per cent were package tours, and for those aged 65 to 84 a total of 41 per cent were package tours.

Package tours are not as popular in domestic travel as they are when travelling abroad. Of the 6.8 million domestic trips including paid accommodation, only three per cent were package tours. Of trips to Lapland, 14 per cent were package tours and of trips made to Uusimaa, eight per cent were package tours. Seven per cent of trips to Pirkanmaa and six per cent of trips to North Ostrobothnia were package tours.

The price of a package tour includes at least the travel and accommodation. The package may also include meals, admission tickets, excursions, programme services, treatments, etc.

Source: Finnish Travel, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Taru Tamminen 029 551 2243, Ossi Nurmi 029 551 2984, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Ylä-Jarkko

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Updated 28.3.2019