Interview with Tarja Manninen, Marketing Director of Exploreinari

They want to discover the north at least once in their lives

It would seem that Finnish Lapland is a huge success...

Tarja Manninen - That's right. For our region, all nationalities combined, we recorded growth of 2 % last year. And more than 30 % for the French in the whole region. That's a huge increase.

How do you explain this craze?

T. M. - People have seen a lot of countries and travelled a lot in recent years. So now they want to discover the North at least once in their lives, get a taste of the cold, the snow, see the Northern Lights... It has to be said that our country has not been destroyed by tourism, nature is immense. And tourists, business or otherwise, are looking for that.

When did it start?

T. M. - The very beginning was in the 1960s, with the opening of Ivalo airport. But this only concerned the domestic market. In fact, it really started for Europeans in the 80s, with the installation of a certain number of hotels until we reached 9,000 beds today. Business tourism, on the other hand, didn't really start until the late 80s, early 90s.

What is the average length of a business tourism stay?

T. M. - Two or three nights. Time to try and see an aurora borealis, which is why they come in the first place, but also to go sledding with husky dogs or reindeer, and then snowmobiling, which comes second and third in their motivations. The domestic market is more likely to be interested in ski touring. But they are all discovering our gastronomy, which is becoming more sophisticated by the day. The opinions are unanimous. The products are always very healthy, very close to nature.

Then there's Sami culture...

T. M. - Of course it is. But it's very strict here: it's the Sami who take care of their own tourism development. We sometimes act as go-betweens, and that's fine.