In his recent visit to Cebu, Finnish Ambassador Juha Pyykkö said his country expects more visitors this year, such as from the Philippines, now that that pandemic-driven travel restrictions have been relaxed.
Pyykkö said tourism is another entry point that both countries, Finland and the Philippines, can explore and eventually grow.
“We want to create stronger ties with the Philippines now that we are back. We are open to exploring trade and tourism both ways,” said Pykkö.
Finland only reopened its embassy in the Philippines in September 2020 after closing in 2012. It recently opened a consulate office in Cebu City located at Park Centrale Tower in Cebu IT Park, appointing Cebuano entrepreneur Jose Franco Soberano, an an honorary consul.
Latest available data from the Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 showed that the region logged 131 arrivals from Finland in the first eight months of this year from two arrivals in 2021.
To increase travel and tourism between Finland and Cebu, connectivity should be made available. Pyykkö also noted that tourism promotions should be two-way for the exchange to be sustainable.
Happy people
Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row in an annual UN-sponsored index.
The world happiness report, now in its 10th year, is based on people’s own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data. It assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data over three years.
The happiness score takes account of gross domestic product, social support, personal freedom and levels of corruption.
This year the index also used data from social media to compare people’s emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Finland has a population of 5.5 million persons. As of 2019, there were 5,594 Filipinos living in Finland.
Arrivals in PH
Meanwhile, the DOT has sustained its positive trajectory of foreign visitor arrivals and receipts since its reopening of borders for visa-free countries last Feb. 10, and to leisure travelers since April of this year.
For the period Feb. 15 to Oct. 7, 2022, the DOT recorded a total of 1,673,888 air arrivals from all international airports. Out of this number, 1,192,779 are foreign nationals and 481,109 are overseas Filipinos.