Piret Pukk, lead analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that compared to the first three quarters of last year, both domestic and international overnight travel decreased in 2025.

In the first nine months of this year, residents took nearly 1.13 million overnight trips abroad — a 10 percent drop from the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, domestic overnight trips totaled 2.4 million, down 11 percent year-on-year.

"Fewer domestic and international trips were taken in all three quarters compared with last year," Pukk noted.

"A likely contributing factor is the overall rise in prices — people are more conscious of their spending and less willing to spend as much on travel," she added.

More than half of all trips taken during the first three quarters of 2025 were for vacation.

"Estonians took nearly 722,700 leisure trips abroad, 214,200 work-related trips and made 153,900 visits to friends or relatives," Pukk said.

Both leisure and business travel abroad saw declines.

The most common international trips lasted between four and seven nights (40 percent) or one to three nights (37 percent). More than one-fifth of foreign trips lasted longer than a week.

More traveling inside Estonia than abroad

"Over the first three quarters of the year, Estonians took more than 1.3 million domestic overnight leisure trips, in addition to 702,300 domestic trips to visit friends or relatives and 310,600 work-related trips within Estonia," said Piret Pukk.

While both leisure travel and trips to visit friends or relatives within Estonia declined compared with the same period last year, work-related domestic travel increased by 10 percent. Most domestic overnight trips lasted one to three nights, accounting for 90 percent of all such trips.

Spending on international travel, meanwhile, rose slightly.

"Compared to the average for the same period last year, spending on overnight trips abroad increased by 2 percent, mainly due to higher transportation and accommodation costs," Pukk explained.

The average cost of an international overnight trip in the first three quarters of 2025 was €1,112, with accommodation accounting for 31 percent of the total and transport for 34 percent.

Spending on domestic trips, however, declined. The average cost of a domestic trip was €161.50 — 13 percent less than during the same period last year.

According to the most recent data from the third quarter of this year, overnight domestic trips were down 3 percent and international trips down 5 percent compared with the same quarter in 2024. Seventy-eight percent of international trips were within the European Union. The average cost per international trip in the third quarter was €1,113, while domestic trips averaged €181.

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