“No,” says Jukka Punamäki, Senior Advisor at the City of Helsinki who is responsible for sustainable tourism development in the Finnish capital. “But we are already very close to that point,” he continues.
Helsinki participates annually in the Global Destination Sustainability Index, according to which Helsinki ranked 4th in 2023, up eight places from 2022 and 12 places since 2021.
93-step programme to achieve vision
Helsinki’s sustainable tourism development is guided by a new programme for tourism and events that was published in 2022. The programme has an ambitious vision: Helsinki is the world’s leading sustainable tourism destination in 2026. To achieve this vision, the programme lists 93 steps that need to be taken.
Helsinki Tourism Sustainability Policy describes the mission statement, values and policy principles for the city’s responsible and sustainable development within tourism industry.
Sustainable tourism development involves, for example, promoting carbon neutrality, focusing on inclusion at the heart of operations, and supporting companies along the path of sustainable tourism in many different ways. “We have initiated several processes both within the City of Helsinki and among stakeholders so that we can state that we are the world’s most sustainable travel destination by 2026 at the latest,” Punamäki says.
Collaboration key to becoming world’s most sustainable destination
At the heart of sustainable tourism is collaboration and inclusion. A large number of the City of Helsinki’s stakeholders, both internal and external, were involved in preparing the programme. Naturally, these included tourism companies in Helsinki. The programme is therefore not so much a tourism strategy for the City of Helsinki but rather a joint declaration by the entire ecosystem.
The programme also highlights the importance of including locals in the development work. The City of Helsinki actively monitors the views of locals regarding tourism and invites concrete development proposals from them.
“Above all, tourism must promote the wellbeing of the residents of Helsinki. And that’s exactly what it does at its best: generate tax revenues, enrichen the service offerings and enable new interactions between people,” Punamäki adds.