Finland attracted over 6.8 million foreign tourists in 2018, with 53 percent coming from other European Union states. [1] In 2017, the value added by tourism was about 4.6 billion euros, or 2.6% of the Finnish GDP, providing approximately 140,200 jobs. [2]
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Most visitors arriving to Finland come from: [4] [5] [6]
| Rank | Country | 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia | 821,698 |
| 2 |  Germany | 622,991 |
| 3 |  Sweden | 597,339 |
| 4 |  United Kingdom | 585,814 |
| 5 |  China | 389,826 |
| 6 |  France | 280,069 |
| 7 |  United States | 268,723 |
| 8 |  Japan | 238,278 |
| 9 |  Netherlands | 227,405 |
| 10 |  Estonia | 219,504 |
| 11 |  Norway | 199,353 |
| 12 |  Switzerland | 167,450 |
| 13 |  Spain | 162,361 |
| 14 |  Italy | 155,599 |
| 15 |  Poland | 116,874 |
| 16 |  Denmark | 113,580 |
| 17 |  Australia | 82,602 |
| 18 |  India | 78,634 |
| 19 |  Austria | 70,769 |
| 20 |  Belgium | 70,452 |
| 21 |  Latvia | 58,776 |
| 22 |  Israel | 57,494 |
| 23 |  Singapore | 54,964 |
| 24 |  South Korea | 51,605 |
| 25 |  Lithuania | 51,280 |
| 26 |  Canada | 45,745 |
| 27 |  Thailand | 43,081 |
| 28 |  Czech Republic | 38,806 |
| 29 |  Croatia | 38,081 |
| Total foreign | 6,742,834 | |
Finland is famous for its many lakes, nearly 200,000 of them (larger than 500 m2/0.12 acres). Tampere is the biggest city on the Finnish Lakeland with other major cities being Jyväskylä, Mikkeli, Lahti, Joensuu, Lappeenranta, Kuopio, and Savonlinna. Finland is also known to have excellent water quality, and green deep woods and forests around the sea, rivers, and the waterways.
In wintertime, Finland provides opportunities for cross-country skiing and alpine skiing. Many of the popular ski resorts are situated north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland, but there are exceptions like Kuusamo in the northeastern part of Oulu Province and Himos in Jämsä, only 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Helsinki.
Throughout Finland, Santa Claus ( Joulupukki ) is commonly considered to live on the Korvatunturi fell in Lapland. In addition, the largest town in Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, has two theme parks dedicated to the character: Santa Claus Village and Santa Park. Finnish Lapland (Rovaniemi and surroundings) is also the best place in the country to see the aurora borealis. [7]
Another theme park in the country is Moomin World, located in the outskirts of Naantali. The park is based on the popular Moomins franchise, created by Tove Jansson.
The biggest picnic of the year called Vappu is held on April 30 - May 1. The celebration happens in every city and village across the country. [8]
Northern Finland, mainly Lapland, has a strong profile as an internationally popular winter holiday destination, which is why the nickname "winter wonderland" has also been used. [9] In the winter there is a large snowcastle with an Ice hotel built every year in the northern town of Kemi. Rovaniemi is a place from which to see the aurora borealis or northern lights. Tourists in the north of the country in winter often enjoy trips in reindeer sleighs with Sami drivers, in dog sleighs, or on snowmobiles.
It is also possible to ski, with downhill resorts at Saariselkä and Levi, and many cross country ski tracks throughout the northern part of the country. Ice hockey is a popular sport in winter, and it is possible to go ice yachting, or ice skating on the ice. Most lakes are also frozen, so ice fishing (pilkkiminen) is quite popular.
Helsinki, Finland's capital and largest city, receives many visitors year-round. During the summertime thousands of tourists approach Helsinki by cruising boats travelling across the Baltic Sea. Helsinki is known as a clean, modern, and safe meeting point between the east and west.
Other popular tourist destinations within Finland include Tampere, Jyväskylä, Turku, Oulu, Kuopio, Rovaniemi, and Porvoo.
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in the country, although it is relatively small compared to other European capitals.
Because Helsinki is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea and has many kilometres of coastline, most of its central districts are near the seaside. Helsinki is considered a maritime city and is popularly called the daughter of the Baltic.
Helsinki's coastal position makes it ideal to experience in the summertime from one of the many sightseeing ferries leaving from the port of Helsinki. Many of Helsinki's main attractions are also related to the sea, including the Suomenlinna naval fortress (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Seurasaari Island with its parks and open-air museum. Locals often spend sunny days at the Hietaniemi beach (often simply called Hietsu), Helsinki's main beach in the district of Töölö.
In the winter-time Helsinki's northern position makes it dark for most of the day, with lighting fixtures such as Aleksanterinkatu's Christmas street (Joulukatu). During the coldest months of the winter, it is very common for locals to go for walks on the frozen sea, although authorities recommend caution when the ice is thin. There are also many places for ice swimming along the coast, some with saunas.
Air travel to Helsinki is via Helsinki Airport, situated in the neighboring city of Vantaa, a city part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Helsinki also has popular cruiseferry links with Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia. Silja, Viking and Tallink are the biggest ferry operators.
Helsinki is also the home of the Linnanmäki amusement park, which features five rollercoasters and many other rides, including the world's first Intamin ZacSpin rollercoaster.
Helsinki is a safe city for tourists and a safe place to live. In terms of personal safety, Finland was ranked 14 out of 163 countries according to Global Peace Index 2019. [10]
Helsinki also has efficient tourist information system maintained by the City of Helsinki Tourism & Convention Bureau located in the city center next to the Esplanadi park.
Helsinki was ranked 10th of the most expensive cities in the world according to UBS Group AG's Prices and Earnings report for 2018. [11] Travelers should plan to spend around US$216 or €199 per day on their vacation in Helsinki, which is the average daily cost of staying in a 4-star hotel, visiting 2 popular attractions, using public transportation, and eating out in mid-range restaurants with a glass of wine included. [12]
Tampere, also known as the "Manchester of Finland", has often been rated as the most popular city in Finland; [13] perhaps it is precisely for this reason that over the years it has grown into Finland's second largest [14] and the second best-known Finnish city in the world after Helsinki. The old industrial city built on between lakes Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and along Tammerkoski rapids has also proved to be quite a significant tourist destination with its various national and international events, [15] [16] museums (such as Moomin Museum) market places (such as Tampere Market Hall [17] [18] ) and, of course, its Särkänniemi amusement park, not to mention the world-acclaimed nature in Tampere. [19] Tampere's local traditional food "mustamakkara" in particular has aroused a lot of interest in the world, all the way to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. [20] [21] Tampere also have been officially declared the "Sauna Capital of the World". [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
Many of Finland's most important highways between different cities intersect at Tampere, such as the Helsinki-Tampere Highway (part of E12). Also, air travel to Tampere is via Tampere-Pirkkala Airport, situated in the neighbouring municipality of Pirkkala, a part of the Tampere metropolitan area.
Tampere is also known for several educational institutions, such as University of Applied Sciences and Police University College; the Tampere University, like the city, is also the second largest of its kind in Finland. [27]
Lonely Planet calls Jyväskylä as a Mecca for architecture lovers around the world for its large collection of Alvar Aalto buildings. The city is the biggest city on Finnish Lakeland and capital of Central Finland. [28] Later, a modern architect Arto Sipinen, a pupil of Aalto, has influenced in the cityscape since the 1970s by designing most of the new university buildings in the city.
The Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland form a centre of culture in the immediate vicinity of the historical campus of the University of Jyväskylä. Both museums are designed by a functionalist Alvar Aalto. The Alvar Aalto Museum displays the artist's most important work and design. The Museum of Central Finland specializes in cultural history. It serves both as the town museum of Jyväskylä and the provincial museum of Central Finland. Nokkakivi Amusement Park is about 20 km from Jyväskylä. [29]
One of architect Aalto's most significant works Säynätsalo Town Hall is located in Säynätsalo island on Lake Päijänne.
The city hosts the Neste Oil Rally Finland (formerly known as 1000 Lakes Rally). It is the biggest annually organised public event in the Nordic countries, gathering over 500,000 spectators every year. The rally has been held since 1951, first as a national competition, then from 1959 on as a European Rally Championship event and since the introduction of the World Rally Championship in 1973, as Finland's WRC event.
UNESCO World Heritage site Petäjävesi Old Church is located in vicinity of Jyväskylä.
Porvoo has often been called an authentic small town [30] and has been chosen as one of the most beautiful towns in Finland on several occasions. [31] The city is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from the 14th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the city played an important role in connection with the Diet of Porvoo, when Finland, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire, gained autonomy in the form of the Grand Duchy of Finland. [32]
The Porvoo Old Town is a popular tourist destination, known for its well-preserved 18th and 19th century buildings and 15th century cathedral, the Porvoo Cathedral. The Old Town together with Porvoo River River Valley is recognized as historically and culturally significant as one of the National landscapes of Finland. Porvoo is also culturally important in that many of the most significant writers, starting with J. L. Runeberg, are largely from Porvoo or its immediate sub-region municipalities (such as Johannes Linnankoski from Askola).
Attempts have been made to make the Porvoo Old Town a UNESCO World Heritage site, but so far it has not been qualified. [33] [34]
Finnish cuisine includes fresh ingredients, particularly game and fish, foraged berries and mushrooms such as false morels, and even reindeer. Alcoholic drinks of note are Koskenkorva, the salty liquorice-flavored Salmiakki Koskenkorva and cloudberry liqueur.
The Finnish rail system is called VR. It offers InterCity and express trains throughout the country, and the faster Pendolino trains connecting the major cities. There are very large discounts (usually 50%) available for children (7-16 yr), students, senior citizens, and conscripts. Connections to Sweden are by bus due to rail gauge differences. It's possible to take the Silja, Tallink and Viking Line ferries from Helsinki to Mariehamn in the Åland archipelago, Stockholm (Sweden), Rostock and Travemünde in Germany, and to Tallinn, (Estonia).The Viking Line rates are usually cheaper, but their ships are older and smaller compared to Tallink Silja Line ferries. [35] NLC Ferry Ab Oy Wasaline ferry from Vaasa to Holmsund in Umeå.
There are about 25 airports in Finland with scheduled passenger services. Finnair, Blue1 and Finncomm Airlines provide air services both domestically and internationally. Helsinki-Vantaa airport is Finland's global gateway with scheduled non-stop flights to such places as Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Miami, Nagoya, New Delhi, New York, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and Istanbul. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle airline traffic routes between Western Europe and the Far East. Hence, many foreign tourists visit Helsinki on a stop-over while flying from Asia to Europe or vice versa. The Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was ranked 18th in the Skytrax World's Top 100 Airports survey. [36]
On December 9, 2013, the City of Helsinki decided that all minors under the age of 18 and all pregnant mothers living in Helsinki without a valid visa or residence permit are granted the right to the same health care and at the same price as all citizens of the city.
Volunteer doctors of Global Clinic have tried to help these people, for whom only acute care has been available. This means that the Finnish health care system is open for all people coming outside of the European Union.
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career ran in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the 20th century. Many of his clients were industrialists, among them the Ahlström-Gullichsen family, who became his patrons. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards.
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About 675,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.25 million in the capital region and 1.58 million in the metropolitan area. As the most populous urban area in Finland, it is the country's most significant centre for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 360 kilometres (220 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has significant historical connections with these four cities.
Porvoo is a city in Finland. It is located on the south coast of the country, on the Gulf of Finland. Porvoo lies in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Porvoo is approximately 51,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 59,000. It is the 19th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 15th most populous urban area in the country.
Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately 255,000, while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 417,000. It is the 3rd most populous municipality in Finland, and the second most populous urban area in the country after the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Tourism in Sweden comprised a relatively small part of the Swedish economy in 2011 at 2.9% of the country's GDP; at this time, tourism generated 264 billion Swedish krona, 98.8 billion of which was foreign-visitor expenditure in Sweden. 7.1% of Swedish household income is spent on domestic tourism.
Rovaniemi is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately 65,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 69,000. It is the 17th most populous municipality in Finland, and the 12th most populous urban area in the country.
Jyväskylä is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately 148,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 191,000. It is the 7th most populous municipality in Finland, and the fifth most populous urban area in the country.
The University of Jyväskylä is a research university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking Teacher Training College, founded in 1863. Around 14,000 students are currently enrolled in the degree programs of the university.
Sub-regions are divisions used for statistical purposes in Finland. The country is divided into 69 sub-regions, which are formed by groups of municipalities within the 19 regions of Finland. These sub-regions represent a LAU 1 level of division used in conjunction with the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics.
Aino Maria Marsio-Aalto was a Finnish architect and a pioneer of Scandinavian design. She is known as the design partner of architect Alvar Aalto, with whom she worked for 25 years, and as a co-founder with him, Maire Gullichsen, and Nils-Gustav Hahl of the design company Artek, collaborating on many its most well-known designs. As Artek's first artistic director, her creative output spanned textiles, lamps, glassware, and buildings. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and MoMA has included her work in nine exhibitions, the first of which was Aalto: Architecture and Furniture in 1938. Other major exhibitions were at the Barbican Art Gallery in London and Chelsea Space in London. Aino Aalto has been exhibited with Pablo Picasso.
Elissa Aalto was a Finnish architect.
The Catholic Church in Finland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
The Diocese of Helsinki is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church based in Helsinki, which comprises the whole of Finland. The diocese is divided into eight parishes. As of 2018, there are 15,000 registered and 10,000 unregistered Catholics living in Finland. There are more than 6,000 Catholic families in the country; 50 percent are Finnish and 50 percent are of international origin.
The architecture of Finland has a history spanning over 800 years, and while up until the modern era the architecture was highly influenced by Sweden, there were also influences from Germany and Russia. From the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield: first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country and then when the Finnish architect profession became established.
SantaPark is a Christmas theme park and visitor attraction in Rovaniemi in the Lapland region of Finland. SantaPark was opened 28 November 1998.
Rainer Mahlamäki is a Finnish architect, president of the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA) from 2007 to 2011, Professor of Contemporary Architecture at the University of Oulu, and joint partner with Ilmari Lahdelma of the Helsinki-based architecture firm Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, one of the most prolific such firms in Finland. A significant part of their work started as entries in architectural competitions, in which they have received 35 first prizes.
Pauli Ernesti Blomstedt, more commonly known as P. E. Blomstedt, was a Finnish architect and designer, who worked first in the Nordic Classicism style and then turned to Functionalism. Both his father, Yrjö Blomstedt, and younger brother, Aulis Blomstedt, were also well-known architects.
The Aalto House, the home of academician Alvar Aalto, is located in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki, Finland at 20, Riihitie. The house is part of the Alvar Aalto Museum, which functions in two cities, Jyväskylä and Helsinki. The other location in Helsinki where the museum functions is Studio Aalto, which is located ca. 450 metres from the house, at Tiilimäki 20.◇
Rovaniemi Library is the main municipal public library of the city of Rovaniemi, Finland. The library building is notable for having been designed by the renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
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