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The tourists have everything one needs for everyday life, but they are very bored. The tourist is not seeking new things, but new meanings to fill his life.
The tourist does not go to the grocery shop in order to buy food to survive, but to get something nice and different for the weekend. When the tourist buys a car, he buys status, style, aesthetic values, comfort and safety. The tourist buys the feeling of health - vitamins, herbal supplements, creams and drops for every purpose to maintain the feeling of safe healthy life. Perfume is not a bottle of nice fragrance, but a feeling of charm and desirability. The most non-existent purchase is losing weight - one of the major businesses in the welfare countries.
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Picture: Traditional Carelian pie-shaped purses, hand made of linen. Jyväskylä, 2011. Photo: Kari Rouhiainen |
Also, the demand and desire for religions, philosophies and wisdoms, in the form of various modern pilgrimages, life coaching courses, books and the things according to the themes is increasing. There is a big industry in the world fulfilling the demands of the bored and distressed tourists. Tourism is part of those industries and produces immaterial purchases.
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Picture: Ultrafashionable shoes. Designer Minna Parikka, 2010 Photo by Ulla-MaijaRouhiainen |
The tourist is longing and searching for unspoiled landscapes, which no one has yet discovered, he misses real places of his own. It is about his own journey and his own irreplaceable time in the world that is at stake. The tourist asks the travel brochure: Is there something for me?
Finnish tourism has a great potential in the future, since most of the tourists in the world have not yet visited Finland. Finland is one of Europe's least known countries. What does the tourist long for and what is he looking for?
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Picture: A badge made from recycled material. Secco, Helsinki, Finland, 2006. Photo: Ulla-Maija Rouhiainen |
Flying over Finland you can notice from the airplane window how modern economy, transport, culture, people with their houses and needs, national governance and competence are situated all in alternate order with forests, lakes and the sea. Man has made room for himself, but he has left large areas almost untouched quite close to the cities. Finland has a population of a little more than five million in an area of 338,000 square kilometres. In Enontekiö, Lapland, there is enough room for four square kilometres (1.5 square miles) per person. Finland has room for more tourists with their cravings and longings. We need tourists, because the change in the economic structure forces people in rural primary production, agriculture and forestry to acquire new sources of revenue. The people that have been given redundancies in the industry, have to look for their livelihood from the service sectors. We need new businesses and jobs.
Finnish design and the tourist’s dreams should be united with products created with a purpose, imagination and enduring sustainable values. Tourism demands excellence in the global export of services.
The production of tourism services is a cooperation of hand and mind. The Finnish mental landscape is the most interesting landscape in Finland and there the traditions can find new forms when designing new products. The innovations and knowledge in the tourism industry need excellent export qualities like any other high-tech products. It is not worth producing unique experiences by a mediocre style, because nobody will buy them.
The old Finnish phrase "people come and go, but the house stays the same" is true in daily life, but this is not useful in providing professional products for a tourist who does not want to pay for anything less than for a unique experience only for him. Knowledge of the cultural resources and the professional skills help to understand the longings of the tourist and helps to provide services that have a real demand. He might even tell his friends of the Santa´s presents.
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Section 6.3: Time is Money | 6.3.2. The Tourist Wants to Experience Art |
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