About Estonian Tourist Board

Who is Visit Estonia and what we do?

Dear tour operator, travel agent, wholesaler, online retailer, business event organiser, journalist, influencer, airline representative and everyone in the tourism world with whom we cross paths on our journey!

Our great aim at Visit Estonia (Estonian Tourist Board) is to raise curiosity in travellers from near and far, and to have them come and discover this little country. At the same time, we also want to make sure that Estonian tourism products are internationally competitive for our visitors to feel good.

Visit Estonia is made up of more than 30 people with a mission. We work in 3 teams, one that looks after the end consumer, one that interacts with the travel trade, and one that deals with development questions. We work closely together to give our home country an advantage it deserves.

Flexibility and creative minds

We operate as flexibly and creatively as possible. We react to fast-changing situations in the world of travel and adapt accordingly. Our strategy is made up of the following goals:

Encourage first visits from long haul markets and repeated visits from closer target markets
Increase visits outside peak season
Prolong the duration of stay
Expand the customer base to include a wider segment - different ages and interests, more demanding and higher-paying travellers

Baltic Road Show in Japan 2022 after crises

Estonian travel industry and strong destinations

We support our tourism companies and destinations with training, mentoring, financial aid and through creating new business models.

We make sure that the services are safe and meet the changed expectations of travellers in the post-Covid world.

We help to promote Estonia as a green destination where the development of sustainable tourism equally takes the environment and the local communities into account.

We encourage the formation of strong local tourism organisations in Estonia.

We also organize an annual tourism conference to connect the tourism community and keep up with the hottest international trends.

Best Green Destination Abroad category award 2023 in Milan

Marketing for travelers

We market to travellers with different preferences by inspiring them with articles and visual material on our website www.visitestonia.com or www.puhkaeestis.ee (over 13 million annual visits) and on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube, Vimeo and LinkedIn social media channels (over half a million followers).

We write news articles on current topics to our target countries and create thematic campaigns from family vacations to spa holidays to directly impact travel motivation in our neighbouring countries. We create international and viral campaigns that reach millions of people globally. For example, we have inspired BBC viewers with footage from Estonia (audience 21 million); cooperated with the Spanish fashion designer Duyos, whose Estonian-themed creations were in the spotlight at Madrid Fashion Week (also reached 21 million people), and we prepared everything necessary so that Michelin came to Estonia in 2022 (500 international coverages that reached half a billion people in the same year).

MICHELIN came to Estonia 2022

International business and media relations

We make sure that influential media representatives and potential tour operators, travel agents and wholesalers become informed about Estonia in the best possible way.

For this purpose, we bring them to Estonia on familiarization trips, organize international business events ourselves or participate in important business events representing Estonia. Tourist operators are often involved as partners. We offer topics to the foreign press and keep media outlets up to date with Estonian tourism news.

Our representatives also play a key role in promoting business contacts and media relations. The representative in German-speaking countries resides in Hamburg, the Finnish B2B expert in Tallinn and the media relations keeper in Helsinki. The representatives speak both Estonian and the language of the destination country and have strong contact with both cultural spaces.

Networking event in Norway 2022 together with our PR partner

Collaboration with Estonian and foreign partners

We collaborate with Estonian partners and believe that the shared power of associations, destination management organisations and tourism enterprises can go a long way in creating strategies and promoting Estonia. In cooperation, we also promote Estonia as a destination for conference tourism and business events, and as a great place for international sports and cultural events.

Click here for our regional destination and association partners' contacts.

We participate actively in global networks and are proud members of organisations such as European Travel Commission (ETC), Green Key, Green Destinations, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), European Tour Operator Association (ETOA), The Global Association of Attraction Industry (IAAPA), Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Sweden (ANTOR), United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), US travel agent network Virtuoso etc.

Visit Estonia together with partners in ITB Berlin travel trade event 2023

Keep up with the numbers

We follow the data trail by analysing accommodation and day trip statistics, studying visitors’ travel motivation and behaviour, and by comparing Estonian tourism results with the numbers of the world (and, of course, with the numbers of the competitors).

By having the most comprehensive overview of the tourism situation in Estonia, we help tourism companies with business decisions, participate in the Estonian tourism policy-making and offer a context for development planning for different destinations.

Explore the statistics!