Finland hopes 100% rise in tourists from India

Finland is expecting nearly 100 per cent rise in the Indian tourists this year as compared to 2005.

Sven Hansen, area director Finnish Tourism board told Business Standard, "The number of visitors from India is growing by 40 per cent every month and we expect that the figure touches 60,000 this year," he added.

He further said that about 30,000 Indian visitors visited Finalnd in 2005, as part of their visit to various destinations in Europe. Out of this, around 50 per cent were business traveller.

However, with direct flight services and tourism promotion, he claimed that the figure may double overnight.

By joining the bandwagon of tourist destinations who uses Bollywood to promote tourism, Finnish Tourism board has wooed major bigwigs of Bollywood to explore their exotic.

"More than 140 film personalities came for the tourism promotion event that was specially organised for Bollywood last week," Sven said.

Bollywood's bigwigs including Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt, Boney Kapoor, David Dhawan and Madhur Bahndarkar have shown interest to come to Finland, he added.

Even, Finnair is starting direct flight from Delhi to Helsinki in the bid to promote tourism from October 30.

Finnish Tourism Board and Finnair are jointly promoting Finland as a new tourist destination to attract Indian vistors.

Talking to Business Standard Taina Tornstorm director of sales who looks after the subcontinent said that the absence of a direct flight to Finland has been a deterrent in promoting tourism there.

There will be three flights in a week, which they plan to increase to five per week.

Finnair is starting flights from Mumbai and the flight fare will be competitive, she said.

"Filmakers are looking for fresh spots and Finland is an unexplored location. In addition, the cost of filming in comparision with other popular European countries will be about 30-40 per cent less in Finland," Sven said.