<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/01/the-santa-claus-effect-how-expanding-tourism-ate-into-laplands-green-space>
"Once upon a time, Lapland was a word that conjured up the home of Santa Claus
in the imagination of British children, but increasingly it has become a
tourist destination.
Last year, more than 700,000 people came to the region, with 100,000 of them
coming from Britain. That number is up 160% compared with 30 years ago.
Soaring tourism is making a substantial footprint on Lapland’s environment.
Exclusive analysis shows that around tourist hotspots in Finnish Lapland, green
areas equivalent in size to London’s Hyde Park were developed for the purposes
of tourism in the five years to 2023. The developments include holiday homes,
ski slopes and a virtual reality experience to give tourists who missed the
light show another chance to view the aurora borealis.
The extent of the development was uncovered as part of the broader Green to
Grey cross-border project – with the
Guardian,
Arena for Journalism in
Europe,
Le Monde, the Finnish journalism platform
Long Play and eight
other news outlets in 11 countries across Europe.
While some expansions are larger in scale, many are smaller-scale string
developments consisting of one or two holiday homes. But all are leaving their
mark on the region’s pristine landscapes.
The
Guardian estimates that 15% of developments in Lapland were
tourism-related, jumping to around half in the main tourist hubs."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
