Finland is slowly moving out of a post pandemic recession. Inflation is low and it is thought GDP, which was 0.5 per cent last year, will grow by 1.2 per cent in 2025. On the downside un- employment is increasing and stood at around 8.4 per cent at the end of last year whilst Finland faces an inherent structural problem with an ageing population and not enough people to finance it. Te labour shortage is most acute in the Uusimaa region where 30 per cent of the 5.6 million population live. In 2023 Finland’s main conservative party won parliamentary elections in a tight three-way race pushing right-wing populists into second place and Prime Minister’s Sanna Marin’s re-election hopes were dashed as she took third with her Social Democrat party. Te National Coalition Party took 20.8 per cent of the votes (48 seats) followed by Te Finns with 20.1 per cent (46 seats) and Social Democrats with 19.9 per cent (43 seats). Marin, was the world’s youngest leader at 37 when she burst


into the political scene in 2019 and has been praised for dealing with Covid, her support of Ukraine, and advocating for Finland’s application to join NATO. New Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is a former finance minister and has promised to stand by Ukraine. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb won the run-off election last year against ex-foreign minister Pekka Haavisto to become Finland’s next president with 51.6 per cent of votes. Te vote marks a new era for Finland. In the past presidents were elected to foster diplomacy with Russia and opted not to join military alliances.


Until 2019 tourism accounted for 2.7 per cent of Finland’s GDP with a total tourist demand of €16.3bn. In 2022 this reached €14.8bn (1.8 per cent of GDP) after a sluggish recovery during 2020 and 2021. By 2023 this was


€15.3bn of which foreign tourists accounted for €4.5bn compared to domestic with €8.5bn


Finland has been a member of the EU since 1995 and was the


only Nordic state to join the Euro single currency when it was initiated in 1999. Meanwhile although Finland is not on the top of the list in the tourism market it packs a punch with things to do from the Northern Lights skyline displays, Lapland’s Santa Claus village, plus an estimated 55,000 lakes, forests, national parks and igloos to visit. On average around 200,000 people visit Finland each month with around 2.68 million visitors between July 2023 and June 2024. Until 2019 tourism accounted for 2.7 per cent of Finland’s


GDP with a total tourist demand of €16.3bn. In 2022 this reached €14.8bn (1.8 per cent of GDP) after a sluggish recovery during 2020 and 2021. By 2023 this was €15.3bn of which foreign


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