There have been enough passengers on Finnair’s flights from Japan, South Korea and India since the summer when the countries ease travel restrictions. Japan will waive the visa requirement in October.
– They bathed in 24 saunas. There were so many people taking saunas that the Finnish guides who were there already started to complain that their skin can’t stand sitting on the boards like that, laughs Koivisto.
There are only enough saunas, as the number of Japanese tourists in Finland has started to increase rapidly after midsummer, when the country has eased travel restrictions. For example, Japanese people no longer have to take a PCR test when returning home. A bigger change will take place on October 11, when the visa requirement and the limit of 50,000 arriving passengers will end.
Japan is one of the last Asian countries to lift restrictions. Only China continues to impose strict restrictions.
– Japan and South Korea are open for travel, further south Singapore and Thailand are already fully open for most customers. Asia is starting to become a tourist destination in terms of corona restrictions in a situation where it was before the corona era, continues Tolvanen.
Finland is one of the main destinations for Japanese people in Europe
Both Finnair and Business Finland, which markets Finland as a tourist destination in Japan, expect Japanese tourism to Finland to recover quickly in 2023.
The Japan Tourism Industry Association has chosen Finland as one of the main European destinations for Japanese tourists. Tarja Koivisto, who has just returned from the travel fair in Japan, says that travel agencies are already selling one-week or 10-day trips to Finland for the summer of 2023.
– There have been new tour operators who have made many trips to Russia in the past. They are looking for alternative markets, and Finland is a good alternative, says Tarja Koivisto.
But what would make a Japanese tourist stay in Finland instead of taking pictures of himself on social media in Paris or Rome?
– The Japanese say that they think it is easy to travel and travel in Finland, the destination is reliable. On the other hand, they like the fact that the Finn doesn’t come too close and knows how to listen, and doesn’t immediately start interrupting.
Finnair anticipates busy travel between Europe and Asia in the summer of 2023, even though the number of passengers in 2019 is still a long way off.
– It is possible that the total capacity in Asia will increase. We are monitoring how our number one market develops and whether there is a reason for us to change the capacity plans for summer 2023 during the autumn, says Tolvanen.
Russia’s overflight ban raised air ticket prices
Due to Russia’s overflight ban, few European airlines plan to restore flights between Europe and Japan during the winter. It brings additional passengers to Finnair. In August, 15 thousand passengers already flew between Tokyo’s Haneda and Helsinki-Vantaa, three times more than at the beginning of the year.
The planes can’t fit many more passengers, because the flights require more fuel than normal due to the long flight distance. It increases the weight of the machines, and not all seats can be sold.
Expensive fuel and higher production costs have drastically increased the price of plane tickets. It does not appear in the demand.
– The customers are a lot of well-to-do people over 60 who have the time and money to travel, says Tarja Koivisto.