Finland is keeping the border closed to Swedes for virus reasons. Bad news for tourism-dependent Åland.
The landscape now awaits clear guidance on what applies to Swedish leisure boats this summer. Perhaps some of the season can still be salvaged.
The significance of Swedish tourism for Åland can hardly be overstated.
”When we count how many Swedes have a close connection to Åland, with friends, holiday homes and so on, that amounts to approximately 30,000, the population of Åland,” says Lotta Berner Sjölund, CEO of the official tourism organisation Visit Åland, to TT.
”Sweden and Finland account for 86 per cent of overnight stays, with roughly half each.”
The figure applies to a normal year. 2020 is not one.
At the beginning of the year, some business travellers arrived. Then the coronavirus turned everything upside down.
”Yes, it never got a chance to start,” notes Lotta Berner Sjölund.
Tourist visits in the spring have not been numerous. The pandemic has hit ferry companies Eckerölinjen and Viking Line hard. Traffic has been restricted or completely cancelled. Large parts of the staff have been furloughed.
On Thursday, the Finnish government decided to lift the virus-related border controls for travel to and from the Nordic and Baltic countries. With Sweden being an exception. Reason: The infection situation here.
This allows Swedes who own property in Finland to enter. A Swedish-Finnish relationship also provides this possibility, according to Yle.
During a typical summer, an armada of Swedish leisure boats heads for the Åland archipelago. Lotta Berner Sjölund has tried to get clarification from the provincial government on whether leisure boats are also being stopped by travel restrictions.
”We are awaiting clarification on exactly what applies,” she says.
In two weeks, the government will again make a statement on travel regulations. This means that June is effectively a write-off for the tourism industry in the summer destination of Åland.
Visit Åland is pinning its hopes on freer travel during the equally important tourist months of July and August.
”For us as a destination, it is tricky. We are located in the middle of the Baltic Sea and are completely dependent on the ferries, so it affects the destination in very many ways.”
Despite the difficult situation, Lotta Berner Sjölund believes that there will not be many direct bankruptcies within the Åland tourism industry:
”However, we believe that several will cease their operations earlier than they had intended, for example, cabin rental businesses run by people who have reached retirement age.”
Source: TT
