Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2014 | Page 16

Photo: Nina Kellokoski

Destination:
Finland?
The Finnish Travel
& Tourism sector is
poised for a major
breakthrough

Lately, Finland has been a very hot topic in international discussion. The best-know museum brand in the world,
Guggenheim, is keen on launching operations here – despite being turned down once already. And then in October,
Google announced that it will double the size of its data center in Hamina – which, by the way, is the biggest single
foreign investment in Finland to date.

T

uija Tommila and Hanna Lankinen
from Invest in Finland know full-well
that Finland has been the “talk of the
town” for a while now, and Helsinki, for
one, keeps placing on top in various ‘best
cities in the world’ competitions. Still, Tommila and Lankinen insist that there’s at least
one area which has been overlooked: travel and tourism.
As it stands, the Finnish Travel and
Tourism sector offers everything required
for doing successful business: a dynamic
business climate, a clean and unique environment, and a society that is both safe and
internationalised.
“Especially from the point of view of
foreign investors, it is very important that
the business environment is stable – and
Finland, as one of the few remaining AAAranked countries in the EU, is exactly what
the investors are looking for,” says Hanna
Lankinen who serves as Senior Director at
Invest in Finland.

out that according to forecasts by the World
Travel Tourism Council (WTTC), the total
demand for travel in Finland will grow by
33.7 percent between 2006 and 2016.
“There is still a lot of untapped potential left in various areas,” she says, providing the numbers to back up the claim: right
now, the travel sector comprises only 2.4 %
of Finland’s GDP while the EU average is 6
%. Furthermore, the Finnish sector has been
growing more rapidly than her counterparts
in other Nordic countries recently.
Lankinen and Tommila quickly run
down the list – what is it that could make
Finland the ‘Next Big Thing’ in travel? It
all starts and ends with the unique and unspoilt nature with four distinct seasons. For
example, Lapland with its many wonders is
already making waves in the global television and movie industry: spectacular scenery, wonderful light and cost-effective locations have attracted the likes of BBC and
NBC to shoot in Santa Claus Land.

Going Up

Investor Heaven? 

The experts at Invest in Finland have cause
for optimism, since the number of foreign
visitors in Finland has increased significantly during recent years. Tuija Tommila,
Director for Investment Consulting, points

Finland also has the infrastructure in place
which enables even big investments: easy
transport connections to and from east, west
and south are very i \ܝ[