Estonia rejoices at the return of Finnish tourists – “A statue should be erected in Pärnu to an unknown Finnish pensioner,” says the hotel boss

BARN A late-middle-aged Finnish man lets himself be heard at the counter of the Estonia Resort & Spa hotel’s lobby bar.

– Is there anyone here?! echoes throughout the hall in Finnish. The shade is demanding.

No extra syllables are wasted on the waiter who appeared from the back room.

The waiter is not even mad about his behavior. In Pärnu, every paying customer is worth its weight in gold.

Estonia’s tourism and restaurant industry has suffered badly from the corona pandemic. It hit areas that depend on foreign tourists particularly hard.

For example, there is so much accommodation and restaurant capacity in Tallinn and Pärnu that the increased domestic tourism during the corona was not enough to replace the lost foreigners.

Almost half of the tourists arriving in Estonia have traditionally been Finns.

– We joke here that a statue should be erected in Pärnu to an unknown Finnish pensioner, laughs the managing director of Estonia Spa Hotels Andrus Aljas. Finns are such an important source of income for Pärnu.

The corona pandemic also collapsed the number of Finnish tourists, but now Finns have rediscovered Estonia.

According to Aljas, the last two years were just a struggle for survival for tourism companies in Pärnu.

– For example, at this time last year, there were practically no Finns at all.

People from Jyväskylä Leo Järvinen, Petra Liimatainen and Ninni Liimatainen headed to Pärnu on their holiday trip. Järvinen has been to the city once, for Liimatai it is a novelty destination.

– The architecture is charming and I fell in love with these beautiful parks, says Petra Liimatainen about her first impression.

Pärnu’s famous beach is meant to be tried right away.

– Yesterday we went for a bit of sightseeing, now we are actually walking to the beach. A little swim in the sea. That beach is really beautiful, says Liimatainen.

Head of the Estonian Tourism Promotion Center Anneli Haabun according to the last few months bode well for this tourism year as a whole. And not only for Finns.

– The total number of foreign tourists has risen to two-thirds of the pre-coronavirus level, Haabu says.

According to him, the corona pandemic was a learning experience in many ways. Thanks to it, companies in the tourism and restaurant industry cooperate even more closely.

– Corona also taught me to value foreign customers more. I hope this trend will continue, says Haabu.

According to him, the Finns have taken care of part of the promotion of tourism towards Finland themselves.

– Teflon Brothers remake Juice Leskinen The Eesti (On My Mind) song has pretty good marketing. I think it will rise quite high on the Finnish list as well, Haabu smiles.

You can discuss the topic until Tuesday 5.7. until 11 p.m.