On the geographical features of tourism in Finland

Abstract

This study is intended to explain the regional structure of tourism in Finland by drawing attention to tourist attractions and to the distribution and utilization of lodging services located along the tourist routes. The material thus includes camping grounds, hostels, tourist hotels and inns, motels, vacation colonies, holiday resorts, pensions and boarding houses and, among special vaca­tional attractions, winter sports centers and certain natural beauty spots. The detailed material on the utilization of lodging services deals with youth hostels and camping grounds, which are used by the great majority of tourists in Finland.

The study brings out conspicuous differences between various parts of the country. These differences are due to, among other things, the varying local and regional tourist conditions, the uneven distribution of the urban population, the location of the points of entry into the country from abroad, the areas crossed by the routes of tourist traffic, and so on. The structure of tourism is affected by, on one hand, regional, local and linear features and, on the other, weekend travel and tourist travel proper. At the end of the study, a division of the country into tourist regions is made on the basis of the foregoing circumstances.