Expert Slams Tourism Hype: 'A Fraction Travel to the Nordics'

The concept of "coolcation", traveling to cooler climates to escape extreme heat, is gaining traction globally, but a Finnish tourism expert believes it will not significantly boost mass tourism to Northern Europe. Tom Selänniemi, a Finnish tourism expert, stated that while there's a trend towards cooler destinations, only a fraction of holiday flights are heading to the Nordic region. Selänniemi points to Flightradar24's report of over 153,000 commercial flights in the air on a single day as evidence that "coolcation" is a superficial trend with minimal impact on overall mass tourism. He asserts that countries like Finland will not face the same challenges as overcrowded destinations such as Mallorca or Ibiza, which have prioritized hotel construction over infrastructure and resident needs. Instead, Selänniemi argues that Finland currently has too little capacity for large numbers of tourists. He believes only the Helsinki metropolitan area, Lapland, Turku, and Tampere are adequately prepared. For regions like Eastern Finland and the lake districts, he stresses the need for investment in quality and service, noting that many Finnish hotels date back to the 1970s or 1980s and lack appealing dining options beyond basic roadside stops. Selänniemi suggests focusing tourism development on the Helsinki region, calling it the "world's nature capital" due to its surrounding natural parks. He acknowledges the positive aspect of tourists discovering the Finnish way of vacationing but remains skeptical about its long-term profitability. He differentiates between tourists who frequent restaurants and museums, thus benefiting the economy more, and those who primarily purchase groceries for self-catering.