Estonia is a country with an area of 45,227 km2 (17,462 mi2) and a population of 1.3 million. It is located by the Baltic Sea, is rich in forests, and borders Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Latvia (Figure 1). Tourism plays an important role in the Estonian economy, providing directly 3 % of GDP while the overall impact of the industry on national GDP reaches almost 9.5 % and 3.4 % of total employment. In 2012, 1.87 million international tourists visited Estonia, staying 3.82 million nights, with a 0.966 million domestic tourists staying 1.72 million nights (State Gazette 2013). In the same year, major markets were Finland (44 %), Russia (14 %), Germany (6 %), Latvia (5 %), and Sweden (4 %). Estonian tourism is seasonal, with climax in July, but the off-season tourism is developing (Ahas et al. 2007).
Map of Estonia
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References
Ahas, R., A. Aasa, Ü. Mark, T. Pae, and T. Kull 2007 Seasonal Tourism Spaces in Estonia: Case Study with Mobile Positioning Data. Tourism Management 28:898-910.
Jaakson, R. 1996 Tourism in Transition in Post-Soviet Estonia. Annals of Tourism Research 23:617-634.
Saarinen, J., and T. Kask 2006 Transforming Tourism Spaces in Changing Socio-Political Contexts: The Case of Parnu, Estonia, as a Tourist Destination. Tourism Geographies 10:452-473.
State Gazette 2013 The Estonian National Tourism Development Plan for the Years 2014-2020 www.riigiteataja.ee/aktilisa/3191/1201/3015/lisa.pdf (11 November).
Worthington, B. 2003 Change in an Estonian Resort: Contrasting Development Contexts. Annals of Tourism Research 30:369-385.
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Ahas, R. (2014). Estonia, tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_554-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_554-1
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