Jenny Björklund was out on an island in Finland’s Åland archipelago with a friend when they saw a boat approaching across the Baltic Sea. She assured her friend, who was visiting from Gothenburg in Sweden, that they would be left alone.
“Don’t worry, they won’t come here because we are here. This is our island,” Björklund, a co-owner of a restaurant and distillery on the archipelago, says she told her friend. Sure enough, she was right.
In this Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Finland, there is plenty of space to go around. With 6,757 islands of at least 2,500 sq meters – plus a further 20,000 smaller islands and skerries – and a population of little more than 30,500, there is almost an island per person.
With direct ferry routes from several Swedish and Finnish ports, Åland has long been an established destination among Swedish and Finnish daytrippers and holidaymakers, many of whom hire summer cottages. But tourists from farther afield are starting to visit.
It has plenty of sunshine – the most hours in the Nordics in the summer months, according to tourism officials – and a mild climate that puts it in sharp contrast with soaring Mediterranean temperatures.
At Smakbyn, the restaurant Björklund runs with her husband, where long grass and butterflies are visible through the windows and the medieval Kastelholm Castle is up the road, she says she has noticed an increase in visitors from other parts of Europe.
“We are getting more and more people from middle Europe and a lot more from southern Europe. Before, almost all of them were from Finland and Sweden, about 95%,” she said, but that number is going down. “We’re getting more from Germany, England. This year I noticed quite a few from Norway, which I haven’t before.”
Rising temperatures in more traditional destinations such as Spain, she added, presented “an opportunity here in the north”.
As southern Europe swelters, with temperatures as high as 44C in Spain and forest fires in Greece and Croatia, this Nordic riviera is among the destinations across northern Europe – including Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway – seeking to attract more tourists as the rapidly escalating climate crisis changes tourism habits.
Visit Åland, the regional tourism authority, said in May there was a 10% increase in hotel stays, with about 1.3 million people now coming to the islands annually. While Swedish tourists have decreased as a result of the weak krona, Finnish tourists have increased, with many also coming from Germany, Latvia and Estonia.
Kristiina Hietasaari, a senior director at Visit Finland, said it is trying to promote Finland as a summertime destination, as well as a winter one. “Finland has so much to offer in summertime, we want to fight for our share,” she said. “Today it’s maybe easier than ever before due to high temperatures in Europe.”
Finland has experienced warm weather lately, but it is nothing compared with southern Europe. “The highest we can have is 30C and that’s only a couple of days a year,” Hietasaari said. As tourist numbers are still relatively low, unlike many of the most popular southern European destinations, Finnish people are generally pro-visitors, she said.
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On Torggatan, the main shopping street in Mariehamn, Åland’s capital, the weather this week was overcast and a little breezy. And despite an increase in visitors it remains difficult for some local businesses that depend on tourists during the short summer season. “Mariehamn shuts down in the winter,” said Jenny Stara, 44, a fish trader. “It would be really good if more people from France and Italy came.” Her son Kevin, 21, added: “We have noticed there are more Brits and Germans.”
An ice-cream shop owner, Saija Söderlund, 25, who moved to Åland from the Finnish mainland to live with her partner, had also seen an increase in visitors. “They have been doing a lot of campaigns in Finland, lifting up Åland, and it’s shown,” she said. But she would like to see it promoted more widely. “We can handle the tourists.”
Jussi and Eeva Ojamo, on holiday in Åland from the southern Finnish city of Espoo, said they no longer considered southern Europe in the summer because it was too hot for their two young children. Like many of their friends since Covid, they now tend to holiday within Finland.
With its cooler climate and nature, Åland has huge potential, they said, but Finland is not promoted as effectively as the rest of the Nordics. “It’s a big problem we have here in Finland, we don’t know how to market ourselves,” said Jussi, 38, adding: “Åland is beautiful. Calm, quiet landscapes with the archipelago, great local products and a lot of craftmanship and good food.”
But they questioned whether it was in fact the sunniest place in the Nordics. “Usually when we come here it’s a lot better weather than on the mainland,” said Eeva. “But this year it’s the other way around.”