Finland packages tours for Asian stopover programme

Finland has revealed the next stage of its Stopover Finland programme, through which it aims to attract more Asian travellers to the country.

Visit Finland announced this week that Finnish travel agency Matka-Vekka will begin bundling the services of Finnish tourism and travel companies into stopover packages, to be sold to Asian tourists.

Initially 50 packages will be available and promoted via the Visit Finland website. Matka-Vekka is also building its own stopover travel packages, which will be launched in spring 2016.

“Finding a partner will expedite the progress of the Stopover Finland programme. Now we can truly begin to tackle the challenges of service and product distribution and make it easier to find stopover services,” said Heli Mende of Visit Finland.

“We can increase the income from tourism by building attractive packages ranging from a layover of just a few hours to a few days’ stopover for passengers travelling to their final destination via Finland.”

The Stopover Finland programme aims to leverage Finnair’s expanded operations in Asia. The national carrier is deploying its brand new Airbus A350 aircraft on a series on key Asian routes, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore, and will launch new flights to Guangzhou and Fukuoka in 2016.

To take advantage of the expected rise in Asian passengers transiting at Helsinki Airport, the Stopover Finland programme is aiming to increase the number of passengers who actually stop in Finland. At present, only 4% of passengers flying with Finnair from Asia visit Finland during their journey.

The overall target is to increase the overnight stays of Asian tourists in Finland by 45% and raise tourism revenues by EUR80 million (US$87m) by 2018. For this goal to be achieved, around 300 Asian travellers need to stay overnight in Finland each day.