National parks get 3.6m visitors last year

National parks received 3.6 million visits last year and the number is one per cent higher compared to the number of the previous year, said state-owned Metsähallitus, the operator of the parks in a press release on Friday.

The economic impacts of the spending of national park visitors on regional economies increased by four per cent.

Interest in Finland's national parks has grown throughout the 2000s, and it does not seem that exploring Finland's magnificent nature was just a phenomenon of the corona years. Since 2019, the number of visits to national parks has increased by 12 per cent.

“It is good that the increase in the number of visits has stabilised. In this way, we can better ensure that the service facilities of national parks and other destinations correspond to the number of visits. Our goal is that visitors stay on the trails and that protected nature does not erode”, said Henrik Jansson, Executive Director of Parks & Wildlife Finland at Metsähallitus.

Finland's five most popular national parks had the same number of visits last year as in 2022 while nine national parks exceeded 100,000 visits last year.

Pallas–Yllästunturi National Park got 584,000 visitors, Urho Kekkonen National Park 417,600 visitors, Nuuksio National Park 274,400 visitors, Koli National Park 249,100 visitors, Pyhä–Luosto National Park 217,400 visitors, Oulanka National Park 175,800 visitors, Sipoonkorpi National Park 172,500 visitors, Repovesi National Park 132,400 visitors, Syöte National Park 106,100 visitors and Teijo National Park 93,000 visitors.