Southern Finland to get tourism boost from Chinese visitors
Four Chinese travel agencies are busy organising travel packages to Finland’s Saimaa lake district for an increasing number of Chinese tourists, Finnish holiday firms say.
At the moment, the sprawling lake region in southwest Finland is getting quite a bit of attention at the Shanghai World Travel Fair, which opened on Thursday.
Finnish tourism firm GoSaimaa says about a dozen local travel agencies are preparing for the arrival of several thousand Chinese visitors to the region.
No exact visitor estimates are available, however, because agencies do not share reservation figures. But an influx is expected in any case, after China’s biggest online travel agency Ctrip added Saimaa to its holiday package roster three weeks ago.
Finnish traditions and nature draw interest
Agencies are arranging day trips to the lake region, as part of larger packages.
Intineraries for single-day trips include extravagances like visits to a hotel spa, but nature trips are also available. Tours offer travelers activities like forest treks, boating excursions as well as opportunities to bathe in a real, Finnish sauna.
For most tourists Saimaa will be only be a pit-stop on the way to destinations further afar, like Helsinki, Rovaniemi, St. Petersburg, Russia, or Stockholm, Sweden.
Chinese tourists have been booking holidays well into August and September, according to Holiday Club Saimaa hotel manager Anne Puhakainen, so the Eastern visitors are extending the region’s summer vacation season, she says.
“There are almost no Finnish guests here in the autumn, so it’s good that groups are coming in from China,” Puhakainen says.
The reason Chinese travel agents are seeking new destinations in Finland is because Lapland’s tourist housing capacity is already virtually booked to capacity, according to GoSaimaa.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Nunavut gears up for increase in Arctic tourism, Radio Canada International
Finland: Southern Finland looks to lure Chinese visitors beyond Lapland, YLE News
Iceland: Arctic tourism in the age of Instagram, Eye on the Arctic Special Report
Norway: Several ships being launched to feed Arctic cruise boom, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Russia fires up nuclear icebreaker for North Pole cruises, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Millions more flights from Swedish airports despite environmental toll, Yle News
United States: Alaska’s cruise industry just keeps getting bigger, Alaska Dispatch News
