April is taken into account the cruelest of the months, and Helsinki’s vacationer season eagerly awaits itself. Sadly, the expectations for this 12 months aren’t very excessive. The variety of international vacationers coming to Finland has fallen by about one-fifth of what it was in 2019.
This has resulted in a big decline in tourism in Finland. The variety of vacationers from Russia and Asia has dropped by virtually one million in a single day stays. Particularly, the variety of international vacationers from Russia, China, and Japan alone has decreased by greater than one million in comparison with 2019.
As a result of pandemic after which the warfare in Ukraine, there was a big lower within the variety of vacationers visiting Finland. The variety of in a single day stays of international guests decreased by 20% in comparison with 2019. Vacationer visas for Russians had been stopped in 2022 as they weren’t allowed to enter Finland. Furthermore, the land border with Russia is at present closed. Based on Statistics Finland, international vacationers had 7.1 million in a single day stays in 2019. Russian friends, the long-time leaders, remained the biggest group of international vacationers in Finnish lodges, accounting for 821 thousand in a single day stays.
Additionally, the journey to Helsinki from Asian locations has change into extra advanced as flights from China and Japan have needed to keep away from Russian airspace, thus prolonging the flight time to round 14 hours.
In 2019, tourism income, together with home and international tourism, amounted to 16.3 billion euros. Nevertheless, as a result of lack of international guests, this income has taken successful, with Statistics Finland estimating it to have been solely 15.3 billion euros in 2023. This represents a shortfall of about one billion euros, virtually solely as a result of lack of international tourism.
The present state of affairs is difficult tourism corporations in Finland. To spice up tourism, corporations give attention to attracting guests from Europe and North America, with vital development. Even Finnair, which had beforehand based mostly its technique on fast connections to Asia, has invested in the US.
Tourism has hit the capital area hardest, dropping over 20% of its standard guests. Final 12 months, lodge stays in Helsinki had been down by about 23% in comparison with 2019, indicating a big drop in international vacationers who haven’t but returned.
Nevertheless, Lapland has seen a rise in international tourism, with extra guests than earlier than the pandemic. This area has been thriving in tourism, and in 2023, it was the one province the place the variety of international vacationers was increased than in 2019. Nonetheless, there have already been complaints about extreme tourism in Lapland. The house of Santa Claus is bustling with the rising variety of vacationers, and the winter season, which will get livelier yearly, is already seen within the residents’ every day lives.
