*blogcollaboration with Helsinki Travel Fair and Visit Estonia

This year’s Travel Fair in Helsinki was opened in exceptionally snowy conditions, and the snow falling from the sky brought with it a unique atmosphere. I myself have really been able to enjoy the winter in Helsinki this year, because unlike many other winters, Christmas and January have been colored by almost pure white snow. Thursday in Travel Fair was reserved especially for professionals in the tourism industry, and it offered me, an experienced content creator in the tourism industry, the opportunity to participate in diverse meetings. Particularly noteworthy was the information event organized by Visit Estonia, where they spoke about e.g. the 2024 European Capital of Culture, Tartu. So here’s a little more about Tourism in Estonia and Tartu in 2024 –

Staggering figures

Visit Estonia’s website Visitestonia.com was said to be popular with Finnish tourists, which is clearly evident in the number of users who visit it: it was reported at the information session that an average of 3.2 Finns visit the visitestonia-website every minute. During 2023, a whopping 14 million visits were registered on that site. That just proves how useful it is to have your travel destination online also in Finnish language! In addition to this, according to a study commissioned by Visit Estonia, the vast majority of Uusimaa residents, i.e. 99 percent, which means the Southernmost Finland, have already visited Estonia in real life at least once, which emphasizes the country’s appeal among Finns. Even I have been to Estonia so many times that I’ve lost the count.

Tartu, the European capital of culture in 2024

Air connections are constantly developing, and this year’s significant novelty is the Helsinki-Tartu route, which will open on March 31, 2024. The agreement of the flight route between Helsinki and Tartu has been made for four years, which guarantees a long-term connection between these two cities. It will be very easy to travel first to Helsinki and then take a connecting flight to Tartu, after spending a day or two in Helsinki, of course. Tartu’s location in southern Estonia makes it an easily accessible destination: You can get to the city from Tallinn in two and a half hours by bus or by train in no less than two hours. However, with the new flight route, the journey from Helsinki will be significantly shorter, lasting only 45 minutes. Tartu airport is conveniently located only ten minutes from the center.

This year the cultural capital Tartu offers more than a thousand events, including unique cultural experiences, such as the Suudleb Tart mass kiss during a free concert and the “Naked Truth” opinion festival. Naked truth is the world’s first sauna discussion event, where the discussions will take place on the sauna boards. The events will be multilingual, as the discussions will be held in Estonian and English, but there will also be some discussions in Finnish language as well. Btw. I don’t know how well a foreigner can make out the difference between Estonian and Finnish languages, because they sound very similar to each other, but I’m sure that can also be discussed in the Naked Truth festival.

Tallinn and Estonia’s event calendar for the beginning of 2024 is full of fascinating destinations. For example, PoCo Tallinn, the only museum in the Nordic countries completely dedicated to pop art, offers its visitors a unique art experience. In addition, fashion designer Dior’s dresses can be seen in “The Elegance of Dior Women” exhibition organized at the Keila-Joa Schloss Fall hotel until June 30, 2024. The exhibition is located some 30 km away from Tallinn. In addition, Sting’s concert in June at Tartu’s singing arena will certainly be a top experience, but it is probably already sold out. The Kalamaja Museum being nominated in the European Museum of the Year 2024 competition makes it also an interesting museum destination.

News from shipping companies

Representatives of the large shipping companies Tallink, Eckerö Line and Viking Line participated also in the Visit Estonia info event. They said that ship tourism has seen growth in 2022, even though passenger numbers have not yet returned to the pre-Covid level. Weekend departures have been popular, as for example Tallink’s morning departures from Helsinki to Tallinn have often been sold out, while early week days, Monday, Tuesday, with -15 degrees below zero have not been as popular.

For Eckerö Line two million passengers in 2022 has been a significant milestone. Eckerö Line is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, since the company’s operations began in August 1994. Eckerö’s Finlandia ship is currently undergoing renovations. In addition, a new and easy-to-use online service for booking cruise and hotel packages from Eckerö Line is being made and it will be launched in February 2024. The pricing there will be transparent, so that the customer can clearly see what is the actual prize of the cruise and the hotel in a package.

For Viking Line, Cinderella’s return to traffic in March will strengthen Viking Line’s Helsinki-Stockholm route, and in the summer there will be special Viking cruises from Stockholm to Visby, enabling traveling from Turku to Stockholm and then from there to Gotland.

Viking Line’s offer for passengers to choose bio-fuel on the route between Helsinki and Tallinn is an example of the growing environmental awareness in the tourism industry.

In 2019, almost a thousand Chinese people traveled on Tallink every day, and although these numbers have not yet been reached after the Covid virus restrictions, the number of international passengers in 2023 still increased by more than 20 percent. More Asian tourists are probably going to come. Tallink’s two modern vessels, the 6-year-old MegaStar and the one-year-old MyStar, continue to operate between Finland and Estonia. In addition the Victoria ship will offer 22-hour cruises from Helsinki to Tallinn and back, so you can visit Tallinn for a morning coffee, for example.

Estonia continues to be a favorite destination for Finns and shipping companies actively cooperate in marketing Estonia as a travel destination.

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