Travel News Monkey

Matka 2007 was the largest travel event for the Nordic nations and it was held at at the Helsinki Fair Center Jan 19-21. Representatives from 1150 domestic and foreign destinations and travel service providers from 69 countries attended the Nordic Travel Fair, the slogan for which was “Quality in travelling for everyone.”

Finland takes its tourism seriously as shown by the Finnish Tourism Policy, which was drafted last December and in the earlier National Strategy for Tourism, which set a target of 5% annual growth in tourism. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the tourist growth in Europe in 2006 was three percent, six percent in Northern Europe, and ten percent in Finland.

The government invests around 261 million euros in promoting tourism in Finland. It aims to increase overnight stays in the country from 10 million to 25 million. Finland hopes to achieve this by selling traditional Finnish products and hosting multi-nation events such as the Eurovision Song Contest in May or the Tall Ships Race in Kotka in July. Read more.

Britain is considering switching to Central European Time, which would mean that its citizens will have to set their watches 60 minutes ahead of the present time. The objective of this move is to boost tourism and make road travel safer. The objectives have been arrived upon on the basis of a government study. Read more.

According to www.slowtrav.com, “slow travel” through Europe lets you experience the grandeur of the continent much in the way of a fine gourmet meal which gives your palette an experience in refined dining not to be had with fast food.

Slow travellers typically eschew hotels and inns and prefer to stay in apartments and cottages that they rent for extended periods. When they do things like shopping for grocery at the local store and interact with people in the café, they get to learn more about a place than they would if they stayed at a hotel.

The concept of the “slow traveller” is an established one in Europe and lodgings for slow travellers are known by different names in different countries. They are called “agriturismos” in Italy, “gites” in France, “self-catering apartments” in Britain, and “ferienwohnungen” in Switzerland and Germany. Slow travellers take in more of what a place has to offer and are not focused only on its major tourist points.