LETTER FROM MALMÖ
With his good-natured air, his white beard and his thousands of gifts, Santa Claus is an unstoppable marketing argument. Everyone adores him. Including the Chinese: “They are crazy about it”, says Jari Ahjoharju, who heads the Santa Claus Foundation in Helsinki. Proudly, he says: “When we organized events to promote Finland, before Covid-19, even the bosses of the big tourist companies in China lined up to have their picture taken with Santa Claus. »
The foundation collaborates with charities. It is above all the owner of the “Santa Claus Finland” label: a registered trademark that only companies that have signed a partnership with the foundation are authorized to use, for their promotional campaign for example. This is the case of the airline Finnair, but also of Sony Music, the car rental company Add Car or the hotel chain Sheraton.
When we talk about other regions of the world, which claim to host the official residence of Santa, Jari Ahjoharju is evasive: “It’s their right”but, he adds, “there is no real competition”. Even Greenland has thrown in the towel. In an interview with the Finnish television channel Yle on December 25, 2017, the director of the Greenlandic tourist office, Lykke Geisler Yakaboylu, admitted it: the archipelago had lost the battle. “In Denmark, all children believe that Santa Claus comes from Greenland. But in other countries it is associated with Finland. »
At one time, however, tens of thousands of letters arrived each year in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, in the huge red mailbox, installed on the port. Children from all over the world sent their wish list there. But the exorbitant postage rates and the payroll required to answer each of the letters twice caused the bankruptcy of the company which managed Santa’s mail. The mailbox moved to Ilulissat in 2011, before ending up in Uummannaq, where Santa’s summer residence is also located: a modest shack made of stones, peat and wood painted green, in the middle of a rocky landscape. .
Hotels, restaurants and amusement parks
Nothing to do with Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland, with its hotels, restaurants and two amusement parks. In January 2010, the municipality of 53,000 inhabitants, more than 800 kilometers north of Helsinki, was granted the status of “official city of Santa Claus within the EU”. A consecration after decades of promotional campaigns, which ended up making Rovaniemi one of the most popular destinations in Finland. In 2019, before the pandemic, it had welcomed around 400,000 tourists, 65% of them in December. This year again, the Chinese and the Japanese will be absent. And, yet, “Hotels have a 90% booking rate”assures Sanna Kärkkäinen, president of Visit Rovaniemi.
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