VISIT Finland aims to build “solid” tour operator and travel agency partnerships in Asia to develop Finland as a stopover destination for Asian passengers travelling via Helsinki Airport to other destinations in Europe.
It will be introducing a new Stopover Finland programme by May 2016, consisting of 50 attractive packages in Helsinki and beyond that range from five hours to five days. The NTO also plans to increase its visibility at ITB Asia in 2016 in order to build trade partnerships.
Visit Finland’s Stopover Finland programme director, Heli Mende, said: “The success of Stopover Finland requires solid tour operator and travel agent partnerships. By investing in the visibility at ITB Asia 2016, Stopover Finland wants to invite new partners to consider selling Finland as a stopover destination to their clients travelling from Asia to Europe.”
Travellers can experience Finnish highlights from Northern lights to midnight sun, relaxing in Finnish forests, lakes and sauna, shopping for Finnish design items, and meeting popular characters like Moomins and Santa Claus.
Finland’s two largest Asian markets, China and Japan, which accounted for six to seven per cent of total arrivals in 2014, are expected to grow further when Finnair adds two new routes to North Asia in summer 2016.
Starting from May 7, 2016, Finnair will launch a thrice-weekly route to Fukuoka, Japan. In addition, there will be a four-times weekly service from Helsinki to Guangzhou, China, but that seasonal route will operate only from May 6 to October 29, 2016. The two new routes will both use the Airbus A330-300.
Fukuoka will be the fourth Japanese city that Finnair flies to, after Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Guangzhou is Finnair’s sixth destination in Greater China after Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong and Shanghai and Xi’an.
Finnair will also take delivery of its first four A350 XWB orders this year, while another seven will be delivered over the next two years. For its Asian network, the A350 XWB will be deployed to Shanghai from November 21, progressively to Beijing and Bangkok by the end of 2015, and to Hong Kong and Singapore by the first half of 2016. The Airbus A350 XWB will replace the A340s currently plying these longhaul routes.
Finnair’s country sales manager, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, Nick Naung Naung, said: “The A350 XWB aircraft is 25 per cent more fuel efficient and quieter than the A340s, and the extra wide body of the A350s offers more space and wider seats for greater passenger comfort. The Finnair A350 XWB has 297 seats – 46 in business class, 43 in economy comfort and 208 in economy class.”
