Compact Travels - Exploring Places Like Never Before...

Taina is the Director Sales for the Spain and Portugal territory for FINNAIR - the official carrier of FINLAND. Taina was recently in India to explore the possibilities of having direct flights from India into Finland and our Editor Subhash Motwani spoke to Taina about one of the world's oldest operating airlines as well as about Finland including Lapland - the land of Santa Claus.

Taina also spoke about the phenomena of “Aurora Borealis” and why it attracts several tourists from places as far as Japan. Read on to know more about the Journey to the Top of the World as well as the official carrier of Santa Claus-FINNAIR.

What is the purpose of visiting India?
The purpose is to study the Indian market as Finland is interested in opening a route to India from Helsinki.

What do you see is the potential of travellers from India into Finland?
The numbers are not too many. In fact, we don't even have the numbers but as the tourism in India is opening up, we see a very strong potential and therefore this trip to India to assess the market. I am sure there are Indians coming in from Schengen area or visiting Finland whilst visiting other Scandinavian countries. Hence, it is difficult to get the exact number of Indian travellers as they may be entering Finland from other European countries. The positive side is that when I spoke to the Consulate out here I got to know that there is a visa application to Finland almost every day of the week. So there are people who are looking to travel from India to Finland.

With the potential of increasing tourism, are there any plans of Finnair starting its flights into India?
There are plans to start flights either from Delhi or from Mumbai. As of now Delhi seems to be the more likely of the two as the flying time is shorter by about 50 minutes. However, we are interested in Mumbai as well as Mumbai is the commercial capital of India.

We are looking at both the options and the initial plans would be to start from either one of these cities and have flights thrice a week going into Helsinki. We are looking at October 2006 if not earlier as we have to get the papers ready and get approvals from the relevant authorities here in India including the Ministry. The flights from Mumbai to Helsinki would be of 8 hours and 50 minutes whereas from Helsinki into Mumbai it would be one hour less i.e. 7 hours and 50 minutes.

What will be the advantage for the Indian traveller to travel on Finnair?
Finnair will have the fastest connections to north of Europe which includes connections from Helsinki to Germany, Brussels as well as Moscow, St. Petersburg and London. We also fly non-stop daily across the Atlantic to New York.

There have been a record number of passengers from India to Europe this year. Coming to Finland, what are the attractions that would appeal the Indian traveller who wishes to explore new destinations ?
Finland in winter and Finland in summer are two different countries although I would expect more leisure travellers coming into Finland in summer especially from India as it coincides with their summer holidays out here. I am sure the travellers from here would like to combine Finland with other parts of Scandinavia or the northern part of Europe. In Finland, one can start from Helsinki - the capital of Finland and from Finland one can take a visa free cruise to Saint Petersburg which is a very new development since last year. There are luxury ferries to Stockholm for overnight cruises. You can also visit the Baltic States by boat. Then there is the area of the thousand lakes where there are over 100000 lakes and also Lapland - the home of Santa Claus.

You can even continue further north to Norway from where you can reach the Arctic Ocean. You can take a flight to Rovaniemi - the capital of Lapland to go further north. Finland is 1200 kilometres long - so it is a big country yet sparsely populated with only 5.2 million inhabitants. Finland is mostly known for its natural beauty. The water from the lakes is clean and potable, most of the country is covered with forests So in Finland, its mainly nature and nature related activities and it is a paradise for nature lovers.

What about Finland being known as the Land of the Midnight Sun?
This is something I forgot to mention. Finland is in the Arctic Circle and as a result the days are extremely long in summer and around 20th June onwards is when the sun does not set at all and you have sunlight for the entire 24 hours of the day. So you can read a book all night without switching on the light.

This unique phenomenon is more apparent up north near Rovaniemi where Santa Claus lives and here it lasts much longer as it is closer to the Arctic. So to have a feel of the Midnight Sun you should spend a few days in summer in Lapland. For a first time traveller, it is important to spend atleast 5 days to cover Finland and if you add Sweden and Norway to see the fjords then it should be atleast 14 days. You can from the Northern part of Finland take the famous boat to Norway going down to Bergen. This trip takes the whole week but it is a very unique experience.

From where does Finland get its largest segment of travellers?
The largest number of travellers are from Europe, especially from Russia and Sweden as well as the other Scandinavian countries i.e. Norway and Denmark as they are in close proximity to Finland. Germany too is a big market and Spain as well as Italy markets are also growing very rapidly. And these tourists come to Finland throughout the year. From Asia we have lots of Japanese tourists coming especially in winter to experience the “Aurora Borealis” or the Northern Lights.

What exactly is the “Aurora Borealis?”
“Aurora Borealis” is a phenomenon caused by solar winds passing through the atmosphere at the magnetic North Pole. Particles hit elements at high speed, causing an eerie hazy effect across the night sky. The colour of the Northern Lights depends on the element that is being hit, and lasts for about 5-10 minutes during winter nights. During this time one can enjoy the snow related activities -

one can go on the snow mobile safaris, you can go on the husky dogs safaris, you can visit the reindeer farms, you can go skiing if you want. During the winter, the days are extremely short- exactly opposite of the summer months. Up in the north, its darkness throughout in the winter months, just as you have daylight throughout the summer months.

Aurora Borealis is something very mystical where you see these Northern Lights in the Northern Sky and people from Japan especially believe that if you see the Aurora Borealis, you are a very lucky person. That's one of the reasons why we have so many Japanese tourists in winter. It is said that the Northern lights have been around since Earth formed an atmosphere-the dinosaurs saw it, early humans saw it and our descendants will see it. It is one of the most fascinating sights and people cross continents to see the occurrence of this natural wonder.

Besides Japan what are the other places that you fly to in Asia?
In all Finnair flies to 8 cities in Asia which includes 4 cities in China - Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. We also fly to Osaka, Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore.

You are the Director Sales for Finnair for the Spain and Portugal territory, what has been your overall experience in promoting Finnair and Finland in this region?
I have been handling the Spain and Portugal market since the last 2 years and it has been a wonderful experience and it feels good to see that the tourism from this region to Finland is growing all the time. We have seen a 45% growth this year compared to last year and they would go to Finland for the same reason that the Indians would travel - to see Santa Claus, to visit the lakes in the summer time. They fly and drive and they hire a cottage for a week, they drive around and in the winter they go to Lapland to see Santa Claus. As mentioned earlier, Finland is a year round destination and Christmas is really big with additional flights from all across Europe into Rovaniemi.

How long have you been in the Airline Industry?
I joined the industry almost 20 years ago as a Management trainee and I have been with FINNAIR in various departments and it has been a good learning experience.

Is this your first trip to India?
I was in India almost 10 years ago during which time I remember visiting Goa and I stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. This is my second visit to India and I am carrying with me lots of positives from this visit and surprisingly I found out that the people in India know their geography and know quite a lot about Finland.

Lastly, what is your message to those who wish to visit Finland?
Finland is not a country of big monuments - it's about nature, especially for people living in big cities it will bring you closer to nature and remind you the importance of clean air and clean water. The people are very friendly and we would be glad to welcome visitors to Finland and look at the tourists traffic growing to the land of Santa Claus.

ABOUT FINNAIR
Finnair is one of the world's oldest operating airlines and was established on 1st November, 1923. In 2004, Finnair carried over 8 million passengers.

Finnair has 58.4% ownership of the Finnish government and has over 9500 people working in with the Finnair group. Finnair covers over 50 international destinations with long haul routes to New York in North America and Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Osaka, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo in Asia.

Finnair flies to 16 destinations within Finland. The domestic route network is one of the densest in the world in relation to its population.
In addition to regular scheduled traffic Finnair operates leisure flights to more than 60 destinations. Leisure traffic flies mainly to holiday resorts in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, South-East Asia as well in the Caribbean and South America.

Finnair is part of the oneworld alliance The first of the global alliances to enable customers to book and pay for flights on its member airlines through its alliance website.