The snow-castle town of Kemi is looking for a new start in tourism after the koruna. Kemi will not build a large snow castle because of the high costs involved.
Kemi is known for its large snow castle and the tourist icebreaker Sampo. Kemi’s first snow castle was built for the winter of 1996 and more than twenty were built.
Now the construction of the snow castle has come to an end, at least for the time being.
– We are not going to compete to see who has the most expensive or biggest snow castle. Instead, our year-round snow castle is now in its first normal business season and we will see how it works,” says Löppönen.
The year-round snow castle is a cold space of around 400 square meters in size and nine meters high, with, among other things, sculptures made of ice. It is located in the approximately 3,500 square meter main building of the snow castle area.
Snow and ice construction has been a central part of Kemi’s tourism activities and we want to continue it by building a winter park in the snow castle area.
– We want to bring out the authentic winter local mood, how to enjoy winter here. Snowmen, children’s snow castles, various slides, throwing snowballs, a snow maze, ice skating and climbing on snowy structures, says Jaakko Löppönen.
Sampo is the main tourism product in Kemi
According to CEO Jaakko Löppönen, the absolute main product of Kemi’s tourism in the future is the icebreaker Sampo.
Sampo has been taking tourists to break the ice and float in the sea since 1988. It is one of Finland’s best-known tourism products in the world, and Sampo brings in about half of the company’s turnover.
– This winter looks good. About 13,000 international cruise customers are coming. We are quickly returning to the level we were at before the corona.
Tourism is recovering, tourists are now coming to Kemi from more market areas. Large groups come from, for example, Israel. Still smaller groups also come from Asia and Southern Europe, German-speaking regions and Great Britain.
Now the travel company has decided to invest in a year-round snow castle and icebreaker Sampo instead of a snowy castle.
The crown disciplined
Corona has severely disciplined Kemi Matkailu Oy since the spring of 2020. The flow of tourists stopped especially from the direction of Asia, where most of the customers came to visit the tourism icebreaker Sampo and the snow castle.
The city of Kemi has invested quite a bit of money in the tourism company it owns in recent years, for example in building a year-round snow castle and renovating Sampo. The tourism company owes the bank about seven million euros and loans granted by the city about two million euros.
Last fall, Kemi tourism asked the city to finance the company with one million euros so that it can handle loans and develop operations.
At the beginning of August, Jaakko Löppönen started as CEO of Kemi Matkailu Oy in a situation where the company’s turnover had dropped drastically due to the pandemic.
He already sees the light at the end of the tunnel. The company’s goal is to increase the turnover from one million to five million euros in the next few years.
– In the season ending, we are doubling our turnover, and next year’s turnover looks like it will double again. Next year we will rise to a positive result.
According to Jaakko Löppönen, the tourism company’s balance sheet needs to be strengthened so that the ability to operate in the coming years is maintained.
– The purpose is that our turnover goal for the years 2023–2026 is realized, and it is a quick return to the pre-pandemic level. I’m starting from the fact that this city investment is enough for now.