Land, Sea and Air: Helsinki’s award sweep takes
the tourism industry by storm

Helsinki really is on top of the world after winning three respected travel awards in two months.

Helsinki was named the top Nordic destination at last month’s ITB Congress in Berlin. It won the Scandinavian Travel Award for Best Destination from a jury of German journalists, travel marketing professionals and academics.

The Award recognises products, services and organisations that promote travel to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland).  Entries are judged according to how innovative their marketing operations are, the overall quality of their marketing communications and innovations in product development.

Industry experts are not alone in their choice of Helsinki as a tourist hotspot.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Airport Council International conducted a customer satisfaction survey with 65,000 passengers at 40 airports world-wide.

Travellers chose Helsinki-Vantaa airport as the best airport of its size in the world and the second best airport in Europe after Copenhagen.

Domestic and international travellers were asked to rate airports on 31 service-related points including overall experience, efficiency and politeness of check-in staff, signage, cleanliness, shopping and dining opportunities and sense of safety.

“Australian passengers are looking for more user friendly airports in Europe which allow them to reduce their minimum connecting time.  Connecting times at Helsinki Vantaa can be as short as 35 minutes, says Finnair General Manager Australia Helen Blake.” Our Australian passengers enjoy the openness and freshness of the airport and of course the great duty free shopping!”

It's the fifth time in recent years that Helsinki has emerged as the world's best in the 5-to-15-million passengers-per-year category.

The US magazine Dream World Cruise Destinations gave out 2 awards to Helsinki in its annual awards to cruise destinations: the Most Improved Destination and Destination with the Best Tour Guides.

The Most Improved Destination award is for destinations with advanced tourism products and a well-functioning structure in terms of issues including public transport, urban landscape planning and tourist information services. In order to receive the award for Destination with the Best Tour Guides, the guides needed to provide excellent service and be highly competent.

For more information on Helsinki visit www.hel.fi/tourism