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Rural tourism in Finland as it is comprised after the 2nd World War has its roots in the big changes and developments of the rural areas after the 2nd World War.
When the war was over, more than 400,000 Finnish refugees had to be inhabited in Finland. Those people had fled from the areas in Finnish Carelia that had been taken over by The Soviet Union. The land that remained then the territory of Finland was to be shared by laws among the people. There was not enough of farming land for all the families and lots of new small farms were established and built by clearing new agricultural area in the wilderness, especially in the eastern, central and northen regions of Finland. The families started working and creating new life after the war, a lot of children were born, after the war there was the biggest babyboom ever.
The new farms were, however, too small to provide living for big families on a long run.
There was an inevitable development to be experienced in the 1960´s and 1970´s when the majority of young people started to move to towns and as many as 500,000 Finns moved to work in Sweden in the car factories and other industiral jobs. There was a lack of labour force in Sweden and the salaries were good compared to that offered in the home country.
The rural areas in Finland became depopulated and the politicians, especially The Agrarian party Suomen Keskusta made a strong political issue to keep the whole country inhabited and all areas equal in economic and social development. This policy has had remarkable effects also in the development of the rural tourism among other new rural business development efforts.
The rural leisure time activities started when the landowners by the 187,888 lakes in Finland started to build saunas and later small huts by the beaches. The buildings were modest, and, at first, they were ment only for use by the families themselves and their children returning with their grandchildren from towns and from Sweden to spend their holidays in the countryside.
Gradually the investments got bigger than just private holiday facilities. The rural businesses got subsidies from the government and the rural tourism started to get development and promotion subvention from many levels of the national administration. The membership in the European Union has developed the rural businesses further.
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1.3.1. Finland | Rural Tourism Accommodation |
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