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Helsinki’s best travel products and providers have once again been chosen by members of the public in the annual Best of Helsinki online campaign. The winners in each competition category are as follows: Best City Break Highlight – Hakaniemi Market and Market Hall; Best Family Resort & Fun – Tropicario; Best Nordic Oddity – Yrjonkatu Swimming Hall; Best Winter Experience – Winter Garden; and Best Meeting Experience – Wanha Satama. Voting began in January and ended on 31 October. This year the www.bestofhelsinki.fi website attracted around 26,000 visitors, over 10,600 of whom voted.
In addition, travel industry professionals got to vote in two separate categories: Favourite Travel Professional and Best Incentive Experience. The first category was won this year by Helsinki Expert Oy’s Managing Director Risto Valttila and the second by The Travel Experience’s "Helsinki Action Weekend". In addition, the Tourist & Convention Bureau presents each year a Lifetime Achievement award at the gala. This year for the first time two individuals were recognised for their long careers in promoting tourism in Helsinki: Finland Convention Bureau’s Managing Director Tuula Lindberg and Helsinki Expert Oy’s Managing Director Risto Valttila.
Record number of Russian visitors to Helsinki
Russians now represent the largest group of foreign visitors to Helsinki. The number of overnight stays (bednights) by Russian visitors increased during the period January-September by 30 percent to 184,500. Helsinki and tax-free shopping attracted the increasingly wealthy Russian middle class in particular. The next biggest groups of foreign visitors arrived from Germany, Great Britain, the USA and Sweden. The number of overnight stays by visitors from India, Denmark, Poland and Australia also increased strongly during the first three quarters of 2008. The number of overnight stays by visitors from India increased by almost 50 percent over the corresponding period in 2007 thanks primarily to improved flight connections.
Summer season at same record level as in previous year Despite the onset of the global financial crisis, the total number of visitors to Helsinki during the summer season from May to September remained at the same record level as in 2007. The number of overnight stays from January to September increased by 4.6 percent, and the trend is expected to remain positive for the entire year. August remains the busiest tourist month in Helsinki, with over 80 percent of accommodation capacity filled. The accommodation capacity utilisation for January to September was 70.4 percent. Helsinki’s accommodation capacity utilisation is among the highest in Europe.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
