The Arctic Emerges as a Serious Destination for Post-Pandemic Times
Photo Credit: Destinations like Lapland in Finland (pictured) are becoming increasingly popular as the Arctic ups its tourism game. VisualHunt / Tania & Artur
Skift Take
As demand has increased, the Arctic has expanded its visitor infrastructure. It just needs to ensure that it has the personnel to preserve the experiential part of it.
The Arctic’s natural features, remoteness and improving visitor infrastructure is making it an increasingly competitive and popular destination. Yes, the ultimate in an undertourism play. This corner of the world is coming back strong from the pandemic, but its sluggish restaffing levels stand in way for now of it hitting its full potential.
The Arctic, which includes the northernmost regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden, continues to head back to 2019 levels. In Lapland, Finland's most northernmost region, total visitors between January and August amounted to 767,000 this year, compared to 869,000 for the same period in 2019, according to the Finnish Lapland Tourist Board.
“In Finnish Lapland, in many destinations here, people are speaking about the best year ever for the coming winter season,” said Rauno Posio, project leader of Visit Arctic Europe, a joint project by the tourism boards of Northern Norway, Swedish Lapland and Finnish Lapland to d
