#studyinlapland

Just a random tree during winter in Rovaniemi, where -30 degrees is the most frequent temperature 🌡️❄️

HURRAYYYY! I got my Diploma for the completion of the Christmas Experience Academy and guess what... I got the Diploma from Santa himself, who even signed it personally! 🤩🎅🏻🎄🎓

I am really glad to have been able to participate in such a mind-stimulating and experience-focused summer school. I learned a lot and I also got even more aware of the impacts of tourism and experiences on an economical, environmental and personal level.

During the summer school many discussions arose about the different covered topics.

I would like to share here, as a conclusion of my summer school studies, some arguments from the last discussion we had in the Christmas Experience Academy.

The main topic was keeping alive the values of Christmas all-year-round in Rovaniemi as a tourism destination. We got divided into groups to think and elaborate some ideas about the topic and my group reflected over how to create an upholding Christmas spirit.

We thought that some of the core values of Christmas could be kept alive all-year-round through activities not necessarily strictly linked with Christmas itself.

The values we focused on are HOPE, BELIEF and POSSIBILITIES for everyone and everything, i.e. animals, humans, nature, the poor and the wealthy and so on. Such values could be brought in front stage by supporting eco-tourism, creating sustainable workshops suitable for everyone (gift wrapping and ornament creating with natural or recycled elements, cooking classes with variations of traditional foods for special diets etc.) and spreading the will to share and care with a “Secret Santa”-like activity open to everyone.

Such ideas would need a lot of development and work upon them of course, but we thought they could be a starting point for something new.

On the other hand, we discussed that we, as tourism students, are constantly thinking and studying about how to attract tourists and create in the destination more and more experiences. But then the problems of mass-tourism and overflow of tourists come into the picture, creating a chain reaction of “disasters” on the above mentioned economical, environmental and personal levels.

How to deal with this? There would probably be a need for a control over tourism on a global and local level. But achieving it requires efforts and planning to such an extent that is currently very difficult to reach in practice.

Welcome to the paradoxical world of tourism students and tourism in general. ✈️🌍

My summer studies are over for this year and now I am here writing about what could I experience as a tourist in Rovaniemi during the summer school.

You may wonder about how could I still experience the city and its surroundings as a tourist, when having lived here already for a year so far.

Well, that has been made possible in many ways.

As you might have read in some of the previous posts, I got the opportunity to participate in activities that I had never taken part in before. And even in the places I had already been, I discovered something new I didn’t know yet.

The boat ride with the Happy Fox company (https://happyfox.fi/) I wrote about in a previous post enabled me to see the city I live in from a different point of view and provided me with lots of interesting information I didn’t know before.

I got the chance to take part in a photography-based tour in the nature provided by the company Beyond Arctic (https://beyondarctic.com/) which triggered my not-so-good-but-I-am-still-trying photography skills, and that connected theory and practice in a single experience.

I got to experience in a new way also some companies I had already been visiting as a guest before. Two of my personal favourites in terms of quality, service provided, friendliness and helpfulness are Choco Deli (http://www.chocodeli.fi/en/) and Arctic Light Hotel (http://www.arcticlighthotel.fi/en/hotel/). The first one offering an authentic and surprising gastronomy experience, and the second one granting the accommodation as a unique experience full of surprises and care.

Overall, Rovaniemi si a city where magical experiences happen (and not only because Santa is around). There is always something new to learn and to do during the whole year.

Rovaniemi never let me down so far and I truly believe it never will. And this could be the opinion of all the people willing to visit or study in this city.

See you in Rovaniemi! 👋✨

Today, as part of my summer school studies, I had the pleasure to participate in a short photography based tour demonstration operated by the company Beyond Arctic (https://beyondarctic.com/).

Beyond Arctic is a relatively young company, founded 2 years ago, likely to provide the experience of a lifetime by combining exclusivity, customization, authenticity and learning opportunities. The company’s tours are photography based, meaning that whatever the activity, aurora hunting, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, midnight sun tours etc., the main focus and the success of the experience are represented and guaranteed by great photography opportunities. For the less-used to the camera, the company provides guidance on how to set their devices in order to be able to capture the nature and its movements, while for the experts private and personalized tours are provided.

Today me and my groupmates from the summer school have been shown some of the best locations around Rovaniemi to capture stunning landscapes and have been given some advice on how to take good quality pictures.

I only had my mobile phone as a photography device, but I tried my best to render through the pictures the fascinating and authentic atmosphere of Lappish nature.

In such tours, the “throwtogetherness” (Massey 2005) of humans and more-than-humans with assigned creative capacities, such as photograhpy, is the one shaping the destination. The landscapes are experienced through all of the senses, rendering the experience as a whole embodied, emotional and educational.

Rovaniemi offers a range of unique accommodation options and one of them is Arctic Light Hotel (http://www.arcticlighthotel.fi/en/hotel/).

Situated in the city centre, in a historical post-war building that used to be the former City Hall, this award-winning hotel guarantees great service efficiency and a variety of comfortable design rooms, lofts and an all-year-round Christmas cabin. The hotel also offers a rich and tasty breakfast and is provided with a restaurant, a bar and a cozy winter terrace that can be booked also for private events.

This hotel really wants for its guests to create memorable experiences, and in some cases it is seen by them as the holiday’s peak-experience itself. In order to do so, the hotel tries to fulfil all of their guests needs, even the ones they don’t know they have. In fact, surprises play a major role in the creation of memorable experiences, and in this hotel’s case they can be made possible thanks to its  hard-working staff.

I have been a guest of the hotel myself last year and I can confirm all of the above mentioned. The hotel’s staff is always available to help or sort out any inconvenience and they even provide the guests what they don’t realise they need. In my case, I’ve been staying at the hotel for a week while waiting to furnish my student apartment and, as easily imaginable for a student moving for more than 3 years to a new country, I’ve been carrying with me A LOT of luggage. While at the reception desk, the hotel’s staff arranged for my bags to be brought in front of my room and the lady at the reception asked me the reason for such a great amount of luggage. I explained to her that I was about to study Tourism here in Rovaniemi and she kindly offered me to help me out in the future with any tourism-related questions I might have had in mind. She handed me the hotel’s name card and she told me not to hesitate to call in case I would need any information from them.

I will never forget such an amazing hotel service, and I was really glad to be able to get back to the hotel for an interesting lecture as part of my summer school studies.

Pictures by Borgogni Isabella, 2017

VisitRovaniemi 2018 (https://www.visitrovaniemi.fi/)

Three days into my summer school, the Christmas Experience Academy, and I already got the chance to experience that what is stated in the quote above is not a mere marketing slogan, but the actual truth.

Although as you may got to know from my previous posts I have been living in Rovaniemi for a year so far, this summer school is opening my eyes even more on the magic and beauty of this place.

One activity in particular made it possible for me to see and visit the city from a different point of view, i.e. the two rivers surrounding it. Me and my coursemates participated in a boat ride provided by Happy Fox company (https://happyfox.fi/). I’ve never been on a boat ride in Rovaniemi before and I’ve always been looking at my surroundings from the ground. Even if it doesn’t sound as anything that different, being able to watch the landscape and cityscape passing by on the riverside has really been a different and memorable experience for me. The fact that we were sitting in a traditional style wooden boat and we got interesting information from our lovely guides Mama Fox and Papa Fox, who also poured us a warm fruity drink during the windy trip, only rendered the experience even more memorable and pleasurable.

Rovaniemi can truly trigger magical feelings and surprise you at any moment!

Christmas and Rovaniemi as a Christmas Destination:

My Possible Previous Experiences of Rovaniemi as an All-year-around Christmas Destination

As for possible previous experiences of Rovaniemi as an all-year-around Christmas destination, I moved to Rovaniemi in 2016 for my tourism studies. It has been two years now, going on three years, so that I can almost call myself a Rovaniemi local. Back in 2016 when I moved to Rovaniemi, I knew and had known Rovaniemi as a tourist destination for its harsh cold winter and its mostly winter tourism attractions, especially for the Santa Claus office, which is opened all-year-around and visited by tourists coming from all parts of the world, including locals as well. Also, I have familiarised myself with other attractions such as SantaPark and the Arktikum Museum. 

I had some experience in the tourism industry and had gained some general knowledge. Still, I remain very enthusiastic about discovering more about the environmental aspects, like sustainability and carbon footprints, and globalisation, although I have learnt quite a lot at least for the past two years from my study programme. For example, I have visited most of Rovaniemi sightseeing places and tourist attractions, such as Santa Claus’ office, SantaPark, Artikum and the Rovaniemi shopping malls and so on for half a dozen times or more along with groups of tourists when I worked as a tourist guide in 2015 at Loma Vietonen holiday village located in about 30 km away from Rovaniemi city centre. Those tourists were mostly French. Additionally, in my first year, I did my fieldwork in SantaPark as an elf. As an elf, I was delighted to help Santa in handling the thousands of letters pouring in from around the world. Moreover, I was pleased to maintain the magic atmosphere of SantaPark, especially for the children, I had to make sure that children had the most significant experience of their lives in SantaPark.

Christmas has different meanings, for instance, to me, is not a day nor a season, it is state of mind. Moreover, it is a celebration, which includes spending time with family or getting reunited with loved ones, decorating the house inside and out, Christmas trees filled up with gifts and shopping for the loved ones. Buying gifts for my loved ones are the most important to me during the Christmas period. Although, for many people, for instance, Christmas is a time to think of Jesus Christ as a baby in a manger, at least for those who believe in Jesus Christ. Besides, the meaning of Christmas evolves when growing up. 

Lastly, for some kids and adults in the North, Christmas is a time when the question "Have you remembered to be good" is raised, which is something Santa's friends, often remember to ask themselves. Fortunately, Santa's elves have some comforting insider information relating to this puzzle. So if you have done your best at being good at your best behaviours to your parents, friends, relatives and even to people we do not know then, you rest assure that your name will be found on the Santa's elves List of the World's Well Behaved Children or adults. Without any doubt, Santa Claus is the nicest and most good-humoured person on the planet "for those who believe in Santa Claus", so to say this particular meaning of Christmas may not be for everyone. (Story of Santa Claus - Santa Claus Office).

Often, I have noticed that finding the right perspective and taking the right attitude towards things matters. For example, bad things that get thrown at me; if I do approach them from the right angle, they are not as awful as they seem. Sometimes, life comes through for me, as well! My point is if things do not go my way during Christmas, it is indeed not the end of the world, and the chances are, a mistake can just as quickly be a happy accident. The truth is that reality and imagination always come into play, but that is still left to be seen.