Seasonal tourism spaces in Estonia: Case study with mobile positioning data

The study analysed the seasonality of foreign tourists’ space consumption in Estonia using mobile positioning dataset with anonymous roaming data. The method which uses mobile phone positioning coordinates in space–time movement studies in Estonia is called the social positioning method. The dataset allowed analysis of the distribution of foreigners’ country of origin in Estonia with the precision of network cells of mobile operators. Privacy of mobile phone holders was guaranteed according to EU regulation. It was concluded that seasonality produces very different and sometimes even opposite tourists’ space consumption patterns in Estonia. Coastal areas are popular for summer tourism and not so popular in winter; continental inland areas were used more for winter tourism. The popular summer tourism areas along the Baltic Sea beaches are dominated by one nationality: the Finnish in western Estonia, and the Russians in eastern Estonia. Latvians made up a higher percentage in Saaremaa and Pärnu during summer and in Otepää and Lake Peipsi in winter. The mobile positioning data have great potential for tourism studies and monitoring, but is a sensitive issue due to the fear of surveillance.