Baltic Visitor

A Baltic Times article on tourism in Tallinn paints a fairly grim picture of an industry which has expanded too fast and cannot fill hotel rooms or attract enough staff. This year has seen a fall in tourist numbers and a drop in the average number of nights for which visitors stay – at the start of summer, room occupancy rates were only 44%.

The riots which followed the removal of the Bronze Soldier did not help to paint Tallinn as an ideal tourist destination. The article rightly points out that the violence affected only a small part of the city, and the hotel manager interviewed suggests that the trouble was blown out of proportion by the Western European media – according to this view the riots were a propaganda victory for Russia, while the Estonian government failed to get its message heard. I’m not entirely convinced of this myself: most of the images of rioting that I saw were on pro-Estonian websites wanting to expose and even ridicule the Russian rioters.

The other key factor was the alcohol ban which followed the riots. For Finnish visitors in partcular, Tallinn is often seen as a place to stock up on cheap drinks – taking a booze-cruise ferry between Finland and Estonia is an eye-opening experience. With limits on alcohol sales, a fair proportion of potential visitors decided not to bother.

This is all bad news for travel companies in the country, some of which may not survive until next summer. But how does this affect tourists? Well, first of all it is important to stress that Tallinn is a trouble-free city for the overwhelming majority of visitors (and that even includes stag parties). Secondly it means that there are plenty of hotel rooms going empty, particularly in four and five star properties, and some good deals should be on the cards. It seems to me that this is an excellent time to visit Tallinn.

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