Finland’s South Karelia Faces Economic Hardship
(MENAFN) The Finnish region of South Karelia has been losing around €1 million ($1.2 million) in tourism revenue every single day since Finland shut its border with Russia, according to a media outlet’s reports from Saturday.
The closure of all border crossings along Finland's 1,430 km land boundary with Russia, which took place in late 2023, came after Finland accused Moscow of facilitating an influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East. However, Russia rejected these claims, calling them “completely baseless.”
For many years, South Karelia, which is geographically closer to St. Petersburg than to Finland's capital, Helsinki, had cultivated profitable relationships with Russia.
These included cross-border shopping, tourism, lumber imports, and job opportunities in the local forest industry.
The recent absence of Russian visitors has left local businesses such as hotels, stores, and restaurants largely empty, resulting in significant economic damage to the area.
Sari Tukiainen, a local business owner whose store is scheduled to close by year-end due to declining sales, shared her experience with the media outlet, saying, “Russian customers asked why we couldn’t stay open around the clock.”
She explained that Russian tourists would purchase large quantities of clothing, especially trendy items and luxury goods, and noted that even winter coats were sold out by August.
The town of Imatra, once a popular tourist destination, has seen its unemployment rate rise to 15%, the highest in Finland, due to layoffs in local mills and steel plants, the media outlet reported.
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