‘2017 was a record year for tourism in Finland’

Saturday, April 28, 2018

David Wu, Director, Greater China, Visit Finland speaks exclusively with Travel And Tour World at ITB China preview on adventure tourism, digital campaigns and more.

Travel And Tour World: Which different tourism markets are blooming in Finland?

David Wu: Traditionally, we have the neighbouring countries which are doing quite well in the Finland market.For example- Russia, Sweden, Germany and UK. But now China has already been ranked number five as a source market in Finland and behind China, we still have Japan and other Asian countries.

Travel And Tour World: How Finland differs from other Nordic countries?

David Wu: Finland and other Nordic countries share common sceneries, environment and even people’s personalities but Finnish is quite different from the other language. It is one of a kind. They cannot understand what is Finnish which is its first unique thing. Also in Finland, we have the unique Santa House Village in Finland which is also an attraction for people to visit Finland.

Travel And Tour World: In 2018 UN World Happiness Report, Finland took the top spot followed by its Scandinavian neighbours and Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. What strategies were undertaken to reach here?

David Wu: To be honest this is not a report that we can reach to get it, however it is a mutual report. They collected data from the UN and from different source, different channels, different fields of the society, so this is a mutual one. Nobody can manipulate this data or the final result so it again shows how happy Finland is.

Travel And Tour World: What is your vision for 2018 and new innovations being planned in Finland?

David Wu: In 2016 and 2017 has been a record year for Finland in tourism. Not just from the China market but from the whole world. So we look forward to 2018 where we hope that with all of our efforts, we can see another record year or a steady growth from all of the markets in Finland.

Travel And Tour World: What are the digital campaigns carried out to increase the influx of tourists?

David Wu: We have carried out a lot of campaigns in China market, mainly to get the reach of our travel trade partners in China for example Fliggy, Ctrip.com along with lot of other major players in traditional tour operators, for example You tour, Kaisa. With the help of our travel trade partners in China like Olivos who amplifies through their channel to reach the audience and consumers. We will continue to do campaigns with our business partners in China and hopefully we can get better each year.

Travel And Tour World: 2018 will be the year of adventure travel as per the UNWTO. What is being done by Visit Finland to promote that?

David Wu: Finland now has projects tied to the China market which is winter sports tourism project. As we all know that the Nordic country especially like Finland, we have a lot to offer to people, they would like to experience winter sports like skiing,different types of skiing and have various safari like the husky safari. We try to use a lot of winter sports elements, able to be taken in normal products and let people to explore those winter sports and adventure in our environment.

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