How Finland embraced ‘world’s happiest nation’ moniker for tourism

Finland’s repeated success in the annual happiness list, once notorious for its boring food and long, harsh winters, has helped transform the country’s global reputation and boost tourism and business.

An overview of Finland Photo: VCG

The United Nations-sponsored World Happiness Report raised some eyebrows when it first put Finland at the top of its list in 2018: Many of the 5.5 million people in the Nordic country freely describe themselves as taciturn and prone to melancholy and give to, public displays of joy with suspicion.

“When I first heard it – and I’m not alone, I would say – I had a big laugh,” TV producer Tony Ilmoni told AFP on Friday on the still snow-covered streets of the capital Helsinki, when Finland was crowned the happiest nation was made for the fourth time in a row on earth.

In reality, however, the global survey seeks to quantify individuals’ personal freedom and satisfaction with their life by using survey data from 149 countries along with measures such as GDP, social support and perceptions of corruption.

Finland is characterized by quiet, world-class public services, low crime and inequality, and high levels of trust in authority.

“The basics are really good here: we don’t have anyone on the street, we have unemployment, but the health system works, the big things like this,” flower seller Riitta Matilainen told AFP.

“But we could be a little more sociable and cheerful!”

The long dark winters in the north of the country were once believed to be the cause of alcoholism and suicide, but a decade-long public health initiative helped cut interest rates by more than half.

For tourism and country branding executives, the “happiest” title in the world was a blessing from which they quickly benefited.

“It’s a really powerful, emotional, and powerful thing to say that you are the happiest country in the world. Why wouldn’t someone want to live in the happiest country in the world?” said Joel Willans, a British digital marketer and creator of the social media site “Very Finnish Problems” who has lived in Finland since the early 2000s.

“Awareness of Finland has grown in recent years,” Paavo Virkkunen, head of Finnish advertising services at Business Finland, told AFP.

After four years, the stroke of luck has been used by countless Finnish companies to market lifestyle products and try to attract workers to relocate and join the country’s technology sector.

Finland’s inconspicuous cuisine was once ridiculed by the then Italian President Silvio Berlusconi as something “persistent” and slammed by his French counterpart Jacques Chirac.

But restaurateurs and product makers are now touting the simplicity and natural ingredients of Finnish cuisine, claiming this is the key to the country’s no-nonsense wellbeing.

However, happiness marketing has been led by the travel industry. The Finnish Tourism Bureau has appointed Finnish “Ambassadors of Good Fortune” to familiarize visitors with the secrets of Finnish wellbeing.

“People are curious [our happiness] and they want to know about it, “said Virkkunen.

The key to Finnish happiness lies in enjoying the country’s vast forests and thousands of lakes, as well as the traditional Finnish steam bath, sauna, outdoors.