The coronavirus crisis continued to slow operations at Finland's airports, but domestic tourism increased a bit last month
According to Statistics Finland, air passenger numbers were 98 percent less in May than the same month a year ago.
Just over 36,000 passengers used Finland's busiest hub, Helsinki Airport, in May. Meanwhile, all other domestic airports saw only 8,745 last month. For perspective, Finland's airports served a total of 26 million passengers during all of 2019, according to national airport operator Finavia.
Around 80 percent of passengers at Helsinki Airport were travelling internationally, while 65 percent of trips at all airports were international and 35 percent domestic.
Domestic tourism better than in April
However, likely using other modes of transportation, Finland's domestic tourism sector saw a bit of recovery in May.
Statistics Finland reported that overnight stays in hotels by domestic tourists were down by 74 percent in May compared to the same period in 2019, but the decrease was less than in April, when overnight stays collapsed by 86 percent compared to last year.
With travel restrictions still in place for most countries in the world, there was no improvement seen in travel by foreign tourists last month, however. Overnight stays by foreigners fell by 96 percent year-on-year - or just about the same amount as in April, according to the number-crunching agency.
Figures for Chinese and Russian tourists were practically nonexistent, with overnight stays plummeting by 99 percent during May, year-on-year.
Overnight stays by Estonian nationals also decreased by 80 percent last month.
Restrictions lightened
The business slowdown appears to have caused a decrease in hotel prices. On average, hotel rooms were about 15 percent cheaper in May than they were a year earlier, according to Statistics Finland.
However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel, as Finland began to relax some coronavirus-related travel restrictions in mid-June.
In particular, restrictions on travel between the Baltic countries and Norway, Denmark and Iceland were officially lifted on 15 June. In effect, passengers travelling between these countries are no longer required to two-week stints of quarantine.
Finland has prepared new travel rules which could result in the opening of borders of at least 12 European countries.
Going forward, Finland will not require travellers to undergo 14 days of quarantine if they arrive from countries with a maximum of eight new coronavirus diagnoses per 100,000 people over a two-week period.