In Finland’s snowy far north, international visitors normally flood the Santa Claus Village amusement park, in search of reindeer rides, snow castles and a meeting with the jolly man himself.
Under the pandemic travel restrictions, however, crowds in the Lapland town of Rovaniemi have dwindled to just a trickle and the joyful winter wonderland feels ghostly and abandoned.
“It’s been an exceptional and difficult year,” Santa tells AFP from behind a plexiglass screen installed in his grotto, adding that his visitors have appreciated being able to forget a tough year and enjoy the Christmas cheer.
Those who can’t make it to Lapland can still purchase a remote one-on-one with Santa, at 79 euros ($97) for five minutes, and the service has proven popular.
“People this year have most of all asked me for happiness, health and then a bit more happiness,” although the children still want toys and games, he says.
“Santa actually had time to chat!” Andrea Karjalainen, on a short break to Rovaniemi from southern Finland with her family, says.
“You would expect that there are thousands of people now, but we’re more or less alone,” adds Teppo, her partner.
Livelihoods in danger
Since the 1980s, tourism chiefs have marketed the Arctic Circle town of Rovaniemi as the “real” home of Santa Claus, helping Finnish Lapland attract a record 2.9 million overnight stays last year, especially from Europe and Asia.
This year, however, visits have plummeted to half a million, most from early 2020 before the virus hit.
“The local livelihoods are really in danger,” Sanna Karkkainen, CEO of Visit Rovaniemi, tells AFP.
“We’ve already got news of the first bankruptcies and there’s going to be more.”
With Finland effectively shut off to international tourists, the impact on Lapland has been stark: 5,000 jobs and 700 million euros in revenue have already been lost, a drop of up to 70 per cent, Karkkainen says.
Many businesses have tried to stay open, such as the family-run Husky Park, whose current footfall is nothing like the normal 600 international visitors a day.
“But we’ve been positively surprised that there have been home-grown tourists, and the snow here has started bringing people in the south to Lapland,” chief of operations Kristian Erkkila tells AFP over the noise of 90 huskies barking.
Behind him, a Finnish family is being helped into a sled, lined with warm reindeer fur, which is then pulled away by twelve huskies following the shouted commands of the musher.
“We’re delighted to welcome everyone, but the whole time we’re thinking what we need to do differently to be able to survive next summer,” Erkkila says, but adds that the vaccine provides “some light at the end of the tunnel”.
Waiting for decisions
At the nearby Santa Park underground theme park, owners Ilkka and Katja Lantinen have opted to cut their losses and reopen in winter 2021.
— AFP
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