By Johanna Lemola

The travel sector underlies much of Helsinki’s appeal and economic strength

Anyone who toured the Helsinki city centre at the turn of the year easily caught a great deal of Russian spoken around them. The Helsinki metropolitan area received close to 100,000 Russian visitors around New Year – one of the main holiday periods in Russia. A slow time of the year in Helsinki in past years, the city’s hotels, cafés, restaurants and shopping scene boomed. It is estimated that the Russian visitors made the Helsinki area richer by some 30 million euro.

“Travel is an important source of foreign income for Helsinki, and it’s money that stays here,” says CEO of Helsinki Marketing Tuulikki Becker, singling out one of the many benefits of travel.

“Travel has a tremendous impact on the Helsinki economy,” Becker asserts. “The sector employs 32,000 people at close to 6,000 workplaces in the Helsinki metropolitan area – 8 percent of the entire area workforce.”

The Helsinki area generates half of the total turnover of Finland’s travel sector. Nationally the travel sector, with its annual turnover of close to 14 billion euro, is larger than the Finnish banking sector or the agriculture-and-forest sector. The travel sector employs more people than the electronics sector in Finland.

“Travel is also a strong pillar of the Helsinki economy in that it can show growth even when the overall economy is sluggish,” Becker points out. Indirectly, travel boosts other sectors including commerce and construction.

A better city for residents thanks to visitors

Long-term Helsinki residents agree that the city has changed vastly over the last two decades, becoming more vibrant, dynamic and fun. International evaluations confirm the notion: Helsinki has been rated the world’s most liveable city and described as trendy, modern and relaxed.

The development in the city has been paralleled by an almost doubling of the numbers of visitors to Helsinki since the mid-1990’s.

“Travel has a direct impact on the lives of Helsinki residents,” Becker continues. “Visitors use a lot of city services – cafés, restaurants, shopping, museums and other. The higher the numbers of visitors, the more their presence impacts the services, the better our own quality of life in terms of these services.”

Estimated visitor numbers play important roles in plans for new recreational services in the city, such as a major Ferris Wheel to open in the South Harbour in the spring of 2014. The proposal for a new Guggenheim museum in Helsinki relies on a heavy volume of visitors from abroad.

Swelling numbers

Helsinki travel numbers have broken records year by year. Overnights have increased strongly since 2006, with the all-time record broken in several of the years since. Records were broken last year at the Port of Helsinki, which saw 11.5 million passengers and received 420,000 cruise passengers. The Helsinki Airport broke the record with over 15 million passengers.

For a few years already Russians have been the single largest foreign visitor group in Helsinki and will likely remain so. Other important source countries are Germany, the U.K., Sweden and the U.S. Notable is a sharp rise in the numbers of Japanese and Chinese visitors recently, much owing to good flight connections between Helsinki and Asia hubs.

Trendy city

What appeals to foreign visitors in Helsinki? “Asians in particular are attracted to our clean air, nature, freshness, trendiness and design,” Becker explains. “Helsinki’s fundamental arguments hold strong for everybody: Helsinki is an easy city to explore and everything works. Russians seem to value the safety and reliability of Helsinki, where products on sale are what they are said to be.

“One of our strong brands is our qualities between East and West, which differentiate us from the other Nordic capitals.

“Visitors and residents alike are attracted to the strong presence of the sea here. Maritime offerings are something that we actively develop. For example, next summer will see the new island destination Lonna, a small island previously not open to the public, and cruises on an 18th century naval sail and row boat in the Suomenlinna fortress islands.

“Perhaps surprisingly, the darkest time of the year is more of an opportunity than challenge for Helsinki. Events like the Lux Helsinki festival of light turn darkness into a richness that brings in more visitors, as well as delighting residents.”

Citizens in key roles

Becker continues on Helsinki’s strengths, one of which is the reception of foreign visitors by the local people.

“Visitors describe the citizens of Helsinki as generally friendly and helpful. I would hope our citizens to stay that way, because they are the best marketers of Helsinki. As such, they help to build our city into an increasingly appealing place to visit and live.”

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Visit Helsinki!

The City of Helsinki actively markets Helsinki as a travel destination through an in-house travel and city marketing company Helsinki Marketing Ltd (Helsingin Markkinointi Oy), a fully owned City of Helsinki subsidiary. Helsinki’s marketing brand is Visit Helsinki.

Helsinki Marketing serves visitors and potential visitors on www.visithelsinki/fi/en, the official Helsinki travel and tourism website. The site contains everything that visitors need and want to know about the city to plan their visit and make the most out of their stay.

Helsinki City Tourist Information serves visitors – and residents – at a downtown visitor centre. Get tips and advice, and pick up maps and brochures! Find us on the map.

An “Info Container” serves customers during the summer months at the Helsinki Market Square, and “Helsinki Helper” tourist guides tour the city centre providing information and tips on what to do and where to go. Various mobile apps help visitors to find their way around the city and locate their choice destinations.

A regional tourist information counter serves visitors at the Helsinki Airport.

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Key Helsinki travel figures 2013

• 3.3 million overnights, 53% of them international and 47% domestic

• Main foreign nationalities: Russian, German, U.K., Swedish, U.S. and Japanese

• 55% travelling on leisure, 43% on business

• Average length of stay: all visitors 1.7 overnights, international visitors 1.9, domestic visitors 1.5

• 61 hotels and other accommodations, 8,400 rooms, 16,600 beds, occupancy rate 69%

• 15.3 million passengers at Helsinki Airport

• 11.5 million passengers at Port of Helsinki

• 283 cruise ships at Port of Helsinki, 420,000 cruise passengers

• 250 international conventions, 40,000 convention visitors (2012)
  

Money left in Helsinki:

• International visitor: average €300 per visit

• Domestic day visitor: about €70 per visit

• Convention visitor: about €1,000 per visit
  

Economic impact of the travel sector:

• 32,000 jobs in the Helsinki metropolitan area, 8% of total jobs, over 18,000 jobs in Helsinki

• Nearly 6,000 workplaces in the metropolitan area, nearly 4,000 in Helsinki

• Turnover: €6.9 billion in the metropolitan area, €3.2 billion in Helsinki (2010)

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