Finland hopes Chinese will take tourism out of freezer
Throngs of Chinese holidaymakers would converge on the city of Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle to visit Santa Claus’s main post office to send Christmas cards with special postmarks or wait to check in at the glassroofed igloos for Northern Lightsspotting. That was in normal times.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the capital of Lapland, in northern Finland, very hard, and its usual stream of visitors from China has all but dried up.
Sanna Karkkainen, managing director of Visit Rovaniemi, estimates that the lack of tourists from China in 2020 cost the local economy around a third of its revenue.
“Visit Rovaniemi expected a tourism revenue loss of around 200 million euros ($237 million) in 2020, with around 40 million euros from hotels and accommodation and about 160 million euros from other consumption, such as program services, transportation, shopping and dining,” she said.
“China has been the biggest source of travelers, and we estimate up to 50 to 70 million euros has been lost as a result of the loss of business from China.”
Since 2017, China has been the biggest tourism source market for Rovaniemi,
with traveler numbers having increased every year before the pandemic hit. The destination welcomed a record number of Chinese visitors in 2019 — more than 56,200, according to the regional tourist authority.
Hot winter destination
In recent years, Finland has emerged as one of the top winter destinations for Chinese visitors, driven by frequent direct air links between the two nations, the extensive rollout of Chinese mobile payment services in the country, and close collaboration with Finland’s main online travel agency.
Wu Zhaohong, China director for Visit Finland, said: “Among nationalities, Chinese tourists ranked fifth for overnight stays in Finland in 2019, and China was the biggest long-haul source market.”
The China-Finland Year of Winter Sports in 2019 resulted in more than 384,000 visitors from the Chinese mainland that year, with more than 107,000 trips made during the peak winter season, according to Visit Finland.
In 2019, Chinese visitors to Finland spent a total of $271 million, with each arrival splashing out an average of $680, Wu said, which is high compared with other markets.
Rovaniemi has been particularly popular for Chinese visitors as more of them choose to travel to Santa Claus Village for their Spring Festival holiday.
Karkkainen said the drivers for the increase in Chinese interest in the region are the adaptation to Chinese offerings.
“The tour operator connections and cooperation with agencies have been highly important,” she said.
“Such milestones like Alitrip and Fliggy (Alibaba’s online travel agency platforms) opening their tour productions to Europe and Rovaniemi with impressive launch campaigns in 2017, as well as mobile payment device launches by Alipay, straight from the Arctic Circle, were unforgettable global events and started a whole new era.”
Karkkainen said these initiative gave Rovaniemi “a great boost that was prolonged by fantastic relationships” with the city’s Chinese partners. “Rovaniemi has great assets for tourism.”
Despite the gloomy picture due to the coronavirus, Karkkainen is confident of a robust recovery. “We see China as having great potential once the tourism restrictions have eased up and accessibility works again,” she added.