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Rural tourism in Finland includes cottage holidays, farm holidays, bed and breakfast lodging, farm visits and group catering, organized activity services and holiday villages.
The estimated number of rural tourism businesses in Finland is about 4000 (Ahlgren 2000; Martikainen 2002). In accommodation statistics, only businesses with more than ten rooms or cottages are included, which means that only about 5% of rural tourism accommodation units are included in the statistics. New regulations in collecting statistical information from the rural accomdation businesses are being launched.
The rural holiday accommodation business is characterized by seasonal differences in demand (see the diagram) and the lack of demand from the home markets. The Finns have built 475,051 private cottages on the shores of the 187,888 lakes. The biggest group of foreign tourists in the rural areas in Finland are the Russians (see the diagram).
According to the National Rural Tourism Working Group, three quarters of the rural tourism businesses have originally been farms. However, today tourism is a major source of income for only 25% of the rural tourism entrepreneurs. The average turnover of a full-time rural tourism business in Finland is about 120,000 Euros. Profitability of full-time tourism enterprises is also weak which in most cases is a consequence of the seasonality of the businesses. (Komppula, 2004)
The rural tourism industry in Finland is characterized by part-time tourism entrepreneurship, limited financial resources, limited business and marketing skills and a low level of commitment to long term development of the businesses.
“ ...an entrepreneur’s definition of success and growth is comprised of his/her attitudes towards the need for growth in business, needs and expectations for continuation of the firm and various quality aspects, i.e. quality of life, quality of service and quality of the product,” says professor Raija Komppula (2004). Tourism is the third most popular means of farm diversification in Finland.
Rural accommodation entrepreneurs have approximately 43,700 beds to offer. The entrepreneurs have various kinds of programmes to offer, the majority offers fishing programmes, rowing and canoeing, hiking and skiing. There is also horse- back riding packages and programmes to experience the genuine farm life in many ways and seasons.
The majority of the farms are located in central and eastern Finland, some of them on the coast and a few on the Aland Islands. There would be a greater demand for rented cottages in the Southern Finland.
Maaseutumatkailun teemaryhmä – The theme committeé for rural tourism (by The Ministry of Agriculture) stands now in response and coordinates national developing and marketing projects.
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Introduction | Qualification System for Accommodations |
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