Tourism direct GVA (2023) | Tourism direct employment (2023) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
2.4% of total GVA (up 0.4 percentage points since 2022) | 5.3% of total employment (up 0.3 percentage points since 2022) | 9.9% of total service exports (down 1.1 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: Achieving more together – sustainable growth and renewal in Finnish tourism. Finland’s tourism strategy and measures for 2025–2028
National tourism administration: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment
National tourism budget: EUR 7.8 million (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Strengthening Finland´s image as a travel destination – Targeting international and domestic tourists to choose Finland and extend their stay, while considering needs at the more local level with specific tourism growth programmes.
Improving tourism stakeholder co-operation – Developing a model that clarifies the roles of Visit Finland, regional tourism organisations and other tourism stakeholders for tourism development and promotion.
Strengthening tourism knowledge to enable sustainable growth – Building on the Sustainable Travel Finland Programme to provide the sector with the knowledge and competence to manage tourism development in an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable way.
Tourism is an important economic sector in Finland. In 2023, tourism directly accounted for EUR 5.8 billion or 2.4% of GVA, up in nominal terms from the previous high in 2019 of EUR 5.7 billion. The tourism sector directly provided 122 800 full-time equivalent jobs or 5.3% of total employment, compared to 128 600 jobs and 5.6% of total employment in 2019. Estimates for 2023 indicate that inbound tourism expenditure reached EUR 4.6 billion, 83% of the peak in 2019.
Tourist accommodation establishments in Finland recorded 6.4 million international overnight stays in 2024, 9.7% below 2019. Germany (11%), Sweden (9%) and the United Kingdom (8%) were the largest source markets. Inbound tourism increased by 16.5% in 2025 to 2.8% above 2019 levels, in line with forecasts, having taken longer to recover due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Domestic tourism in Finland has remained robust in recent years. The 26.1 million domestic tourist arrivals in 2024 were below the pre-pandemic levels of 29.3 million, while the total number of overnights at accommodation establishments exceeded 2019-levels.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is responsible for tourism policy development and maintaining international relations regarding tourism, collaborating closely with other ministries. The drafting of tourism-related legislation remains with responsible ministries. For example, defining differences between housing and accommodation is the responsibility of Ministry of the Environment because the definitions are part of the renewal of Building Act.
A High-Level Working Group on Tourism supports the implementation of tourism policy and preparation of tourism-related matters at the ministry level. The Working Group is composed of ministries of key importance to the tourism sector, regional councils, state administrations, regional tourism organisations, tourism businesses, trade unions, and research and educational institutions and organisations. The Working Group is chaired by the Minister of Economic Affairs and continues the work of the unofficial Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Tourism which had previously operated under the chair of the Ministry for over 20 years.
Visit Finland, the national tourism organisation, is a unit of Business Finland which offers funding, information, advice and networks for different phases of companies that aim to grow in the international market, develop future solutions and renew their business. Visit Finland is responsible for promoting Finland as a destination internationally, collecting and analysing data, and supporting Finnish tourism businesses and regional destinations in sustainable development and to operate in international markets. For 2025, the Finnish Government allocated EUR 7.8 million to Business Finland’s tourism promotion and development actions.
Regional Councils provide support for tourism development projects, advisory services, training and research in Finland’s 19 regions. Finland has 10 Economic Development Centres responsible for tasks related to business and industry, employment, skills and culture, land use planning and the implementation of the EU´s regional and structural policy programmes. They offer financial, advisory, consulting and training services to tourism businesses, grant investment support and manage matters related to their local infrastructure. The Finnish Supervisory Agency is tasked with national permit and supervision practices for business and industry, including the tourism sector.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, 2026.
Finland’s National Tourism Strategy, Achieving more together - sustainable growth and renewal in Finnish Tourism 2025-2028 was updated for a second time in 2025 to better reflect the changing operational environment. The Strategy aims to promote sustainable economic growth in the tourism sector, and it states that tourism growth must create value for tourism professionals, local communities, tourists and Finnish society. A greater emphasis is placed on mitigating seasonal fluctuations and promoting social responsibility, alongside economic growth, accessibility, recognition, and skills. In addition, the role of regional tourism organisations has become more prominent for the implementation of the tourism strategy, while quantitative indicators have been expanded to better understand the impacts of tourism from economic, environmental, and social perspectives.
The Strategy represents the shared vision and commitment of the public sector, tourism industries and other key stakeholders, to the common objectives to enhance the tourism sector for the coming years. The High-Level Working Group on Tourism played a key role in promoting the strategy update and promotes and monitors the implementation of Finland’s tourism strategy 2025–2028. The Strategy is complemented by more targeted strategies as well several independent regional tourism strategies. These include for example:
Visit Finland Strategy 2026-2030.
Major Events Strategy 2023-2033: Promoting Finland as a vibrant and internationally interesting location for major events.
Metsähallitus (Parks & Wildlife Finland) principles for co-operation with nature tourism businesses.
Roadmap for the National Development of Cultural Tourism to 2030: Five target themes focus on the development of co-operation, sustainability, the range of cultural tourism products, digitalisation and knowledge-based management, as well as the utilisation of international activities and especially the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe in cultural tourism.
Development Program for Fishing Tourism 2024-2034: Outlines how Finland will offer a diverse range of fishing services of the highest quality in Europe by 2034, including by enhancing services and business operations, strengthening sales and marketing efforts, and improving the overall operational environment.
Regional tourism strategies are being implemented in the Lapland, Helsinki, Southwest Finland, Central Finland and Lake Saimaa regions, among others.
Within these strategies, a core priority is to strengthen Finland’s image as a travel destination for international and domestic tourists and travellers. Regions in Eastern Finland have been hard hit in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the loss of Russian tourists following the closure of the eastern border due to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, rising costs and labour shortages. In 2024, the government launched a programme for Eastern Finland (specifically for six hand-picked regions) to promote sustainable tourism growth. The Government allocated EUR 3 million to Visit Finland to facilitate and co-ordinate marketing and promotional activities with the tourism industry in the regions, which the regions will jointly fund. Additional activities focus on increasing sustainability and knowledge-based management in the tourism sector and strengthening connectivity of the region. The activities are implemented in close co-operation with regional tourism organisations, tourism companies and regional funding authorities.
Finland is also adopting a “nature positive” approach to minimise environmental harm and invest in nature restoration in tourist destinations. This approach includes rigorous monitoring and reporting on environmental harm and prevention efforts as well as ecosystem enhancement. Visit Finland´s Sustainable Travel Finland programme aims to make tourism operators aware of the importance of biodiversity and identify the potential impacts of their own activities on biodiversity. As part of this programme, Visit Finland developed a Biodiversity Toolkit (see box below), to help tourism businesses avoid clashes between tourism and nature. With the tools available under the programme, tourism stakeholders can seek solutions to avoid clashes between tourism and nature and between tourism and local communities, through nature-positive planning and actions. Monitoring the state of the environment with clear indicators helps to address the problem areas.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is undertaking a study to better co-ordinate and clarify the roles of stakeholders for tourism promotion in the future. The study aims to develop a model clarifying the roles of Visit Finland, regional tourism organisations and other tourism stakeholders (e.g. Association of Tourism Organisations in Finland) in tourism promotion and development activities. The study will be done in close co-operation with the tourism sector and ministries essential to the tourism industry, and will follow with future actions.
Visit Finland has published the State of Sustainable Tourism in Finland report annually since 2022. This national-level overview compiles data, trends and research to assess progress within the Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) programme and identify areas for further development. The 2024 edition highlighted nature-positive tourism as a key opportunity, with 41% of STF-labelled tourism businesses reporting actions that contribute positively to biodiversity.
To accelerate this shift, Visit Finland developed a Biodiversity Toolkit for tourism businesses, to raise awareness and inspire companies to view biodiversity not only as a responsibility but as a strategic business opportunity. It includes:
Two comprehensive guides explaining the relationship between tourism, climate, biodiversity, food and wellbeing
Workshops to support learning and collaboration
A self-assessment tool to evaluate environmental footprint of businesses
A set of indicators to monitor impact and enhance environmental handprint
The self-assessment tool focuses on minimising negative environmental impacts (footprint) and the indicators emphasise the potential for positive contributions to nature (handprint). The indicators span five key areas: energy and climate, waste, food, water and biodiversity. Each includes actionable steps tailored to tourism businesses, helping them understand their impact and build concrete action plans. Work is underway to expand the indicators to cover the impact on the ocean.
The toolkit is part of a broader commitment to mainstream a nature-positive approach as a cornerstone of sustainable tourism development. By integrating biodiversity into business strategy, Finnish tourism companies can help combat biodiversity loss while unlocking new value, enhancing visitor experiences and strengthening long-term competitiveness. The Sustainable Tourism Indicator system supports monitoring progress and enables timely corrective actions when needed.