Tourism executive: tourists see Tallinn and Helsinki as twin cities
22.02.2012, 12:35For tourists, Estonia and Finland are clearly a common destination and Tallinn and Helsinki have been regarded as twin cities for years, with many visiting them when touring St. Petersburg and Stockholm, Daisy Järva from the Estonian Association of Travel Agencies, writes in Äripäev.
According to Järva, all this has helped the Estonian tourism sector to keep growing, with the number of foreign tourists having grown 23 percent last year.
“Almost 30 percent of tourists visited Tallinn because it was the European Capital of Culture. This year Helsinki has been named the World Capital of Design,” writes Järva that there are strong reasons why tourists should continue visiting the two capitals also this year.
Järva explains that the title of the world capital of design is issued once in two years by the world federation on industrial design and that Helsinki won it in competition with 47 cities for its respect to design and use a design as social, economic and cultural development resource. The capital of Finland plans to invest 50 million euros in promoting itself as a capital of culture.
“All this has helped Estonia and Finland to promote also their economic relations. Trade with Finland has grown and Finland has again become Estonia’s main trade partner. Last year, Finns set up 225 new companies in Estonia and there are now 4,616 companies that are fully or partly-owned by Finnish investors.”