Lack of snow damages Finnish Lapland image

Winter tourism to Finnish Lapland has suffered from the unusual lack of snow this winter. Particularly tourists from the UK have been disappointed. Several British tour organizers have canceled their charter flights.

Among the 11 chartered flights originally planned to land in Enontekio, northwestern Lapland, during the last week, only three were actually flown, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.

Joni Nojonen, the director of the Tornio airport, told Yle that one of the Enontekio flights was canceled after it had already taken off from the UK. Nojonen underlined that the conditions at the airport were not responsible.

December charters from the UK have been a growing trend for over two decades. Finnish Lapland is marketed in the UK mainly as a “white snow winter wonderland,” but earlier in November British travel writers described Lapland as “crapland.”

Lack of snow has not affected incoming tourist flow from other countries and regions. In marketing for Asians, the possibility of seeing Northern Lights has been accentuated, and snow does not impact the availability of the Northern Lights.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute told Yle earlier that in November the depth of snow in Lapland was the thinnest since measurements began in 1961.

Juha-Pekka Mikkola, an entrepreneur offering activities to tourists, told Yle that alternative programing has been arranged, but purchased services have also been reimbursed. For instance, rides in sleighs driven by huskies have been replaced with husky driven carriages.

Yle reported that some tourist hotels have stored snow from last winter, but only use this snow on days with sub-zero temperatures, as warm weather would melt it away. Service providers have also resorted to purchasing snow.

For the Christmas holiday season, some 700 charter flights have been planned for the Kittila, Rovaniemi, Ivalo, Enontekio and Kuusamo airports.