Finland’s travel industry flying higher

On the back of a continued  focus on sustainable travel, tourism in Finland continues to rebound from the pandemic slump with a 13-per cent year-on-year increase in overnight stays by foreign travellers in June 2024. According to Statistics Finland, the largest volume of tourists came from Sweden, Germany and the US.

Overnight stays by domestic tourists rose more modestly during the same period, by one per cent on June 2023’s figure. Overall, the number of overnight stays climbed to 2.3 million, an increase of three per cent. Of these, resident tourists accounted for 1.8 million stays.

These figures align with an earlier estimate by Visit Finland’s Katarina Wakonen, who predicted a 10-per cent rise in summer tourist numbers from 2023 to 2024. It is expected that over 1.8 million tourists will visit Finland between June and August this year, spending approximately 1.4 billion euros on accommodation, food, culture, services and shopping.

Recognising change

The summer tourism uptick is duly reflected in traffic figures reported by Finnair. The national carrier transported just under 1.1 million passengers during the month of June, representing a 9.4-per cent increase year-on-year.

June also brought additional reasons for Finnair to celebrate. The Finnish majority state-owned airline was named by Skytrax as the Best Airline in Northern Europe for the 14th consecutive occasion. Additionally, the Finnair cabin crew were deemed the best in Northern Europe and the airline the cleanest in Europe.

These awards follow the news from Skytrax earlier this year that travellers regard Helsinki Airport as the best in Northern Europe. The recognition reflects that much change has been afoot at the airport in recent years: A comprehensive revamp was completed in 2023, with a sustainable focus. Alongside the many future-ready features of the terminal expansion, the airport built the Nordics’ largest taxi charging station and houses a second-hand clothing shop, Relove.

Eat in, take off

As a part of the revamp, Helsinki Airport enhanced its service offering, elevating, among other things, the quality and variety of dining options on offer. This change did not go unnoticed by The Airport Food and Beverage and Hospitality Awards, which recently bestowed the Best Airport Food Hall of the Year award to the food court at the airport’s departure lobby.

Opened in the second half of last year and operated by Select Service Partner Finland, the court consists of six establishments: Asian Kitchen, Bastard Burgers, Fafa’s, Pala Pizza Bar, Robert’s Coffee and Tori Kitchen & Cafe.

The jury of experts selected the winner after chewing on factors such as diversity, customer satisfaction and value for money.

According to Nora Immonen, director of commercial business for Finavia at Helsinki Airport, the range of restaurants at the airport has nearly doubled in the past five years to meet demand, with the selection of hot food especially becoming more diverse. Nowadays, the airport has a food court in both the arrival and departure lobby, the former incidentally picking up the same award one year earlier.

“We can now proudly say that both food courts at our airport have received an international award. This says a lot about Helsinki Airport’s excellent food offering,” Immonen stated.

 By Eeva Haaramo & Aleksi Teivainen