Are you a modern humanist?

Copyright: Isokari

At the beginning of the decade, Visit Finland had a comprehensive marketing survey made in order to find out the willingness of German, British, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch tourists to visit Finland for holiday purposes. A segment called “Modern humanists” stood out from the report. The characteristics of this group are higher than average educational and income levels, an interest towards sustainability, new cultures and local people. The modern humanists are experienced travellers who prefer locality over mass tourism.

What are the types of tourism experiences these Europeans appreciate? The study shows they are seeking to relax and to participate in activities as to counterbalance the daily lives at home, and are looking at experiencing a variety of culture and nature. They are interested in natural sceneries, local dishes, rural and urban cultural landscapes, and visiting sights, but above all experiencing the normal Finnish lifestyle. The strength Finland has is the balance between our modern lifestyle and closeness to nature, being at the meeting point of east and west, and the tribute in art and creativity, especially in architecture, music and design.

We Finns take all the above mentioned granted, so much so, that yet very few tourism

Copyright: Paratiisisaari

companies are actively offering services based on Finnish lifestyle. Hence “Culture Finland” program by Visit Finland which encourages tourism companies in productizing their service offering based on locality and seasons e.g. a picnic in nature, barbequing sausages on open fire, picking wild berries or forest mushrooms, baking Finnish buns, celebrating Finnish Christmas, grayfish parties, ice-fishing, watching local ice-hockey, going to sauna and ice swimming. Amongst the niche products also Finnish education, gender equality, and Finnish innovations are of interest. 

  

Copyright: Hinders

The aim of “Productizing Finnish Lifestyle” – project is to develop service concept ideas both in Turku Archipelago and in Lakeland Area, Central-Finland. There are several differences between these two in nature and linguistic as well as cultural backgrounds. This is visible in e.g. food culture, ways of moving on water (sea/lakes) and in the traditional ways of livelihood and craftsmanship. We are aiming at highlighting these differences in order to encourage the potential guests to plan a longer route thus experiencing Finland properly.

Text: Telle Tuominen