Scientific congresses bring thousands of people to Helsinki in early summer

Hotels completely booked out all this week

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May and June are the busiest congress months of the year. Around half of all conferences that are arranged in Finland take place in the spring or early summer.
      During the most lively congress weeks, delegates arriving in Helsinki from all over the world fill the hotels and crowd public transport systems. The visitors bring money and take home information about Finland.
      According to the congress calendar of the Finland Convention Bureau, in May over 3,000, and in June over 7,500 participants at scientific congresses will be visiting Helsinki.
     
On Monday some 2,000 visitors crowded into the 57th UITP World Congress and Exhibition in the Helsinki Fair Centre. The event is the largest congress of the year in Finland, gathering together more than 8,000 people, including exhibitors.
      Although they are not necessarily a highly visible feature of the capital's streetscape, congress participants are a lucrative source of income for hotels. For example, the current UITP Congress and City Transport Exibition has filled all hotels in the Greater Helsinki area. The city has around 7,700 hotel rooms, and late May is of itself already a fairly busy tourist season.
      According to Leena Sipilä from the Helsinki City Tourist & Convention Bureau, accommodation has been sought this week even in the cities of Lahti, Hämeenlinna, and Hyvinkää.
     
Another super-week of congresses will start on June 10th.
      During that week, some 2,500 guests will gather in the Helsinki Fair Centre to participate in the 76th Congress of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS). Simultaneously, a total of some 1,000 participants will attend the Clima 2007 WellBeing Indoors Congress in Finlandia Hall.
      After Midsummer, 2,000 visitors will take part in the Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology ESPE in the Helsinki Fair Centre.
      In addition to the congress fee, the visitors spent approximately EUR 146 per day in Finland in 2004, according to the most recent figures collected by the Finland Convention Bureau. In Helsinki the figure is higher than in the rest of the country on average.
      Helsinki could host more such meetings, but hotel capacity forms one obstacle. While being pleased with the city’s plans to build new hotels, Helsinki's Director of Economic Development Eero Holstila points out that large congresses are good PR for Helsinki and a sound investment.
      "Several delegates visit Finland for the first time, while many of them come back later with their family on a vacation", Holstila reports.
     
Because of the weather, the summer is the prime season for events, and this effectively means June, while July and August are already the holiday season, with Finland as a whole practically closed down in July.
      This occasionally confuses foreign tourists who visit the capital in July and wonder where all the people are.


Links:
  Finland Convention Bureau
  Helsinki City Tourism and Convention Bureau

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