Fewer than 70 per cent of Finns who visited Estonia in 2017 brought alcohol to Finland, reports the Finnish Commerce Federation.
Finns are spending less and less on alcohol and more and more on services in Estonia.
The share of visitors who brought alcoholic beverages to Finland decreased from 81 per cent in 2014 to 69 per cent in 2017 and has continued to fall in 2018, according to interviews conducted at the border this year on commission from the Finnish Commerce Federation.
Spending on services, on the other hand, has increased to the extent that services ate up 38 per cent of the travel budgets of Finns in 2017, over five percentage points more than in 2014.
The decrease in alcohol sales has also had an impact on total spending by Finns in Estonia: the amount spent by Finnish visitors decreased by over 90 million euros to an estimated 625 million euros between 2014 and 2017.
“Food, sweets and tobacco purchases have outright collapsed compared to a few years ago, as typically these products have been in the same shopping basket as alcohol,” analyses Jaana Kurjenoja, the chief economist at the Finnish Commerce Federation.
“Grocery purchases have of course also been affected by the growing food price competition in Finland.”
The Finnish Commerce Federation gauges that shopping remains one of the most important factors attracting Finns to Estonia, even though the country has gradually lost its price advantage in consumer goods and is facing growing competition from online retailers especially in the categories of shoes and clothing.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
