Hot summer spurs growth in tourism
Travel industry has bigger share of GDP than foodstuffs
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Finnish lodging services this summer are reporting higher occupancy rates than in previous years during the present decade.
Foreign tourists are more interested in Finland than before, and Finns are also spending more money in seeing the sights of their homeland.
Statistics Finland reports that visits by Finns to summer cottages and relatives were down in June by about 10 percent, while there was a seven percent increase in nights spent in commercial lodging.
According to SME, an umbrella organisation of Finnish companies in the travel business, the healthy demand is explained partially by positive developments in purchasing power, the hot summer, and successful summer festivals.
Entrepreneurs in the business say that they would do even better if Finnish school holidays were moved forward by two weeks. Nowadays, schools in Finland let out in early June and start again in mid-August.
SME Secretary-General Pekka Ropponen calculates that the business loses about EUR 35 million a year because domestic demand plummets in mid-August. In spite of the continued presence of foreign tourists, the disappearance of Finnish families with school-aged children from travel destinations in Finland means the end of the summer season for many service providers.
Ropponen, who serves as an expert working for the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), feels that the importance of the travel business in the national economy is not sufficiently understood in Finland.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry calculates that the employment impact of the travel business was nearly 60,000 man work years in 2004. Tourism accounted for 2.4 percent of Finnish GDP, which is significantly more than the foodstuffs industry, which had a 1.8 percent share.
We hope that the economic significance of the travel industry could be understood in decision-making on the state level", Ropponen says. He mainly hopes that the Ministry of Trade and Industry would do more to change the timing of school holidays.
Rentals of summer cottages seem to be experiencing the greatest growth in lodging services. Lomarengas, the largest seller of Finnish summer cottage holidays, reports a nine percent increase in rentals over last year.
"Renting cottages has come to stay, and it is growing. The Finnish city generation does not want to commit to owning a cottage, preferring to rent", says Lomarengas CEO Juha-Pekka Olkkola.
Nights spent in hotels increased by about six percent over last year, and campgrounds are expecting a five percent increase in business. Last year saw an overall growth of four percent in business for lodging services. Growth in demand from Finns was higher than among foreign visitors.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 11.8.2006 - TODAY |
 Hot summer spurs growth in tourism |
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