Travel Fair tourism survey and holiday travel forecast 2025 and international tourism survey: tourism is growing
Finns travelled abroad last year at the same rate as before the pandemic, while domestic travel appears to be up ten percentage points. Finns' economic worries are not reflected in their travel plans, with up to 70% planning to travel abroad, compared to 56% a year ago. Domestic travel is planned at the same pace as a year ago.
According to the first-ever international survey, there is quite a lot of interest in Finland. In the minds of travellers hungry for culture, activities and well-being, Finland is the Nordic leader. The responses highlight a lack of information about Finland's tourism offer.
Finns are active travellers and holidaymakers, with 91% of Finns having travelled at least once in Finland or abroad during the year. Just over a fifth have travelled at least six times.
"Consumers' declining confidence in their own economy has mainly been reflected in family travel. However, business travel has seen a recovery in the last quarter, which generally bodes better for leisure travel as well. As in recent years, we are still seeing a shortage of travel during the tourism restrictions," says SMAL's Managing Director Heli Mäki-Fränti.
Artificial intelligence (AI) services have emerged strongly in travel planning
Trips are booked using a steady stream of websites and apps from airlines, ferries, trains and buses, as well as comparison and sales sites for tour operators, travel agents, hotels and other travel services. Airbnb-type short-term rentals seem to have levelled off for a quarter of travellers. Magazines are the most important source of information on tourism, with newspapers in various forms (47%) being more important than social media (40%). In contrast, ChatGPT and other AI services are already a source of travel-related information for more than a quarter (26%) of Finnish travellers.
According to the survey, the biggest increase in the desire to travel has been abroad. Comparing trips made in 2024 with those planned for 2025, demand is growing especially for southern Europe, including Spain, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and Portugal. On the other hand, there is also interest from neighbouring Norway and long-haul destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and Vietnam, as well as the Caribbean and Africa.
Among the types of trips, cultural, concert, nature, wellness and health holidays are the most popular. Interest in retreats and food and wine trips is significantly higher than the proportion of people who have already taken them. More than half of Finns went to a holiday cottage last year, 29% with their own cottage and 26% with a rented cottage. There is also a slight increase in interest in holidaying in a motorhome or caravan.
There is growing interest in innovative tourism
Responsibility matters a lot. 51% consider it important for tour operators and travel service providers to offer the possibility to buy responsible travel. The main criterion for sustainability is the preservation of local culture. For two out of three, most sustainability issues are important. On the other hand, one in eight do not consider responsibility issues when travelling to be important. There is a moderate level of interest in regenerative tourism, with 34% considering it important. The impact of remote working has continued to increase the amount of time spent travelling, although the impact is not very large. For international trips, the average impact of remote working was 5.8 days for those who increased the time spent travelling and 3.8 days for domestic trips. 12% have considered or are interested in buying a second home abroad. Remote working opportunities and retirement are important influencing factors.
Families and couples spend the most on travel
59% estimated that their household spent less than €1000 on domestic holidays, while on average, respondents estimated that their household spent around €1200 on domestic tourism. Households spend significantly more money on trips abroad, with an average of €1,800. 34% estimated that they spent more than €2,000 on trips abroad.
European interest in Finland as a tourist destination
Both nature and culture, activities and well-being appeal in Finland, but nature is by far the most appealing. On the other hand, the interest is overlapping: 70% of cultural tourists would prefer to visit Finland for nature and 53% of nature tourists would like to visit Finland for a cultural trip.
When comparing the Nordic countries as tourist destinations, Finland still has a lot to offer: nature lovers are more interested in Norway, Iceland and Sweden. When it comes to culture, activities and well-being, Finland is the Nordic leader in terms of motivation for travelling. Italians and French people are most interested in Finland.
The main reasons to travel to Finland are the clean nature, forests, lakes, Lapland, snowy winters and friendly people. On the other hand, 27% of respondents consider Finland attractive because of Helsinki and other urban culture. The mild climate in summer makes Finland attractive to 19% of respondents.
Finland is considered an expensive country. 31% of respondents also feel that they do not have enough information about Finland. Proximity to Russia is cited by 13% of respondents, while 25% of respondents cite no particular reason for not wanting to holiday in Finland.
The Travel Fair's Travel Survey, Holiday Travel Forecast and International Travel Survey were carried out by Taloustutkimus. Responses to the Tourism Survey and Holiday Travel Forecast were collected (1 364) from an online panel of the Household Survey in November 2024. Responses to the international tourism survey were collected from 1313 respondents in five important target market areas for Finland: Germany N=503, UK N=201, Netherlands N=203, France N=202, Italy N=204. The data were collected from Norstat Express in November 2024.
For more information: Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, Communications, Anu-Eveliina Mattila, tel. 050 555 6183, anu-eveliina.mattila@messukeskus.com. SMAL, CEO Heli Mäki-Fränti, p. 040 575 1303, heli.maki-franti@smal.fi.
Matka Travel Fair, the largest travel event in Northern Europe, will be held 16-19 January 2025 at Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre. The international travel buying event Matka Workshop Day opens Matka Travel Fair on 15 January 2025, Thursday 16 January is the Professional Day. Helsinki Caravan Fair will take place 17-19 January 2025.
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Travel agency sales growth driven by leisure travel
Travel agency sales continued their post-pandemic growth in 2024, despite fears about the impact of Finland's
economic challenges. However, the general rise in costs meant that many travel companies' financial results
were down on the previous year. Finns travelled for leisure both domestically and in neighbouring regions as
well as to traditional destinations abroad. Business travel had a challenging start to the year, but towards the
end of the year business travel also showed an upturn compared to the previous year.
Air-based package holidays in 2024
Although the travel world is being shaken by economic uncertainty, extreme weather events and political
uncertainty and conflict, leisure travel is still the highlight of the year for many Finns. In terms of numbers,
package travel sales remain on a clear upward trend.
