The Arctic Science Centre has doubled its visitor numbers in ten years – also due to the growth of tourism in Lapland

The growth of tourism in Lapland also contributes to the tourist numbers of the science centre and the museum. Geopolitics in the Nordic region and Finland’s membership of NATO have “blown the bank” on interest.

The record for the number of visitors to the Arktikum Science Centre and Museum was broken again last year, with almost 152 000 visitors. In 2023, almost 135 000 people visited.

– The impact of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine on the Arctic region has been of interest in the past, but Finland’s NATO membership broke the bank. We want to know about Arctic conditions, climate change, and what is happening in the Arctic more generally.

Arktikum is a weather-independent indoor destination.

There was an increase in the number of visitors, even though one side of Arktikum, the science exhibition of the Arctic Center, was completely closed for renovation for eight months from the beginning of April. The renewed basic exhibition opened on December 6.

– Growth can be seen already at the beginning of the year, says Koskiniemi.

The opening of the new science center exhibition attracted more than 3,000 visitors on Independence Day, but December was still a normal month compared to previous years.

In addition to the science center exhibition, Arktikum has a provincial museum of Lapland, a shop, an art gallery and a lunch cafe. After the Santa Claus business and the Arctic Circle, Arktikum is the most important tourist attraction in Rovaniemi.

Records are broken every year

Arktikum’s visitor numbers have broken records every year since 2015, if the quieter corona period 2020–2021 is not included.

Before the start of growth, in 2014 and before, there were 70,000-80,000 visitors annually, says Hannele Koskiniemi from Arktikum-palvelut oy. In ten years, the number of visitors has doubled.

– After the Corona years, growth has taken bigger strides, Koskiniemi describes.

Bottleneck during rush hour

Right now in winter, the peak tourist season, there are the most customers. During peak times, the bottleneck forms in Arktikum’s lobby, ticket office and sometimes in the cafe. However, the facilities are sufficient, Koskiniemi assures.

– This is a big house and when there are two exhibition sides, the customers spread out quite well. Arktikum’s capacity has not been blocked, on the contrary. Last year, exhibitions were even more spacious than before.

The reason for the slack may be that the number of individual tourists increased the most, by about 30 percent. The number of groups causing congestion and queues grew less.

– There have been occasional queuing situations, to which we have been able to react by opening an additional checkout point. We have also increased the number of customer service staff, coat racks and trays. According to the customer service point as well as the museum curator, there is still plenty of room for growth.

Last year, about 65 percent of visitors came from abroad, most from Germany, France and Italy. Most visitors come from Central Europe.