City puts tourism marketing out to tender, budget €200 000 lower than before

Tourists looking at souvenirs at the red stalls in the center of Rovaniemi. — Souvenirs for tourists are sold at Rovaniemi’s Lordinaukio.

In the future, services will be purchased at a cost of €560 000 per year. The City of Rovaniemi will support Visit Rovaniemi with €280 000 before the tender is finalised.

The City of Rovaniemi will finance the activities of the marketing company Visit Rovaniemi with a capital investment of 280 000 euros. According to the city, this will secure Visit Rovaniemi’s operations until the end of the busy winter tourist season. The City Council decided on the matter on Monday.

At the same time, the City Council decided to launch preparations for a call for tenders for tourism marketing.

Since 2011, the City of Rovaniemi has contracted Visit Rovaniemi for tourism marketing. Last year, the contract was worth 760 000 euros.

The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority stated that the city is operating in violation of the Procurement Act, because it has not tendered the service. The city could no longer sign a service contract with Visit Rovaniemi for this year.

The competition, which will start soon, is estimated to take 4 to 6 months in total.

A big cut to the marketing review

The capital investment of 280,000 euros supporting the first year of Visit Rovaniemi will be made through Rovaniemi Development, which is wholly owned by the city. It owns 51 percent of Visit Rovaniemi (Rovaniemi tourism and marketing). In addition, the company’s shareholders include more than 200 companies.

In the future, the city plans to acquire tourism marketing for 560,000 euros per year. The amount is 200,000 euros less than last year. The council decided to cut the allocations at the end of 2024.

An indefinite contract will be concluded with the winner of the competition.

Visit Rovaniemi does tourism marketing and event marketing, runs tourism consultancy and organizes visits and PR services.