Family winter adventure in Finland

Environment

We always ensure that all litter is removed from any of our activity sites; we strongly encourage group transfers to reduce traffic volumes and we make our clients aware of their obligation to the environment.

We encourage all our clients to respect and embrace the lives and culture of all Jeris’s local inhabitants by learning a few important words: hello, goodbye, please, thank you etc. We have also included activities with a cultural base. In addition, we always encourage our clients to get involved in local events and activities which help to sustain traditional values and customs.

We do appreciate that some may feel that snowmobiles should not be included in such itineraries however in areas such as Jeris they are a way of life. All trails are well managed. The alternatives to snowmobiles would in most cases be large, gas-guzzling off-road vehicles. All snowmobiles are regularly serviced and kept as fuel-efficient as possible. The snowmobile service industry is also another vital source of employment in these remote areas.

By using local suppliers, we can ensure that they are they are committed to designing and operating our vacations in such a way to ensure we maximize the positive effects of tourism on the local economies, cultures and the environment whilst minimising any negative impacts.

Community

Tourism in Finnish Lapland has become the main income source of employment and income replacing traditional industries such as forestry.

Development from a period of extractive industry to an industrial society has come about quickly. In 1950 the largest part of Lapland’s inhabitants lived in rural areas and more than half the workforce worked in forestry and agriculture. Today 65 % of the workforce are in the service industry, 22 % in processing and 10 % in primary production.

This huge growth in tourism and service provision has been developed in conjunction with a long-term sustainable tourism plan with one of the primary objectives being to maintain nature in its natural state while guaranteeing the traditional way of life.

Much of this has been achieved along with membership of EU development programmes, aimed at diversifying sources of livelihood, effectively use or resources and increasing export.

Approximately a quarter of Lapland’s 100 000 strong workforce was unemployed in 1997. Promoting entrepreneurship, ongoing re-education of the workforce and development of the educational system to suit the needs of enterprises is continuing. The target is to diversify the sources of livelihood, increase the value of refinement production and develop new enterprises particularly in the area of tourism. National measures, as well as EU-programme measures, support this objective.

We embrace this philosophy, employing local activity providers and using only locally owned hotels. In this manner, we help to maintain jobs in an area where unemployment was, until recently, very high. Additionally, the use of local suppliers ensures that the tourism spend filters through to local economies via the tourism multiplier effect.