A significant part of Finnish tourism companies do not reach international customers online. The visibility of companies and regions is improved through workshops, the first of which was organized in Kajaani.
The number of international passengers in the Nordic countries has returned closer to pre-corona figures. A clear exception is Finland, which tourists have not discovered in the same way, and Denmark, where the number of tourists is already higher than before the corona.
In Lapland, the situation is partially different due to direct Central European air connections and international marketing.
The majority of European tourists come from Germany. Finland doesn’t even make it to the top 25 on the holiday destination list for German families, Business Finland’s report says.
The reason for the loss of tourists is that Finnish tourism companies do not reach international tourists where they plan their vacations: online.
– It’s really a question of resources, that if there is a husky safari company that takes care of dogs and trips really well, it’s difficult for one or two people to take care of digital sales and marketing.
Now the problem is tackled with digital marketing workshops organized for tourism companies.
The first workshop was organized on Wednesday, May 3 in Kajaani for tourism companies from Kainu in cooperation with the Kainuu Association and Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. The second workshop trial will take place next week in Lappeenranta.
Before the workshop, the organizers have done a background survey, which investigated the visibility of the region and tourism companies to international tourists. Not all companies appeared there.
– It means that the entire area will not affect a potential tourist destination if there is no service offering, Kosonen emphasizes.
Kainuu was the first to learn
According to Kosonen, the most important channels in Kainuu were booking.com, Expedia, Viator and Getyourguide. In addition, the traditional Google services, Meta’s social media services Facebook and Instagram and the travel companies’ own websites were dealt with.
– Don’t forget the companies’ own convincing-looking websites and the possibility of booking, so that you don’t have to pay commissions to outsiders. It’s something worth investing in, Kosonen states.
According to him, the challenges faced by operators in Kainuu are similar to those elsewhere in Finland.
– We have really small operators, and the lack of resources for this digital development is clearly visible. The last few years have been very challenging for companies due to the corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine, among other things, so that resource seems to be less and less available.
*The topic can be discussed until 11 pm on May 5.*