All roads lead to Canada

Matka 2004, the Finnish International Travel Fair, attracted some 73,500 visitors from all over Finland on January 15-18.

In addition to Finnish travel agencies, agencies and tour bookers from Russia, Estonia, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Africa, South America and southeast Asia were represented at the event.

Numerous friendship societies also took part in the travel fair, including the Finnish-Canadian Society. Thanks to Willie Kokkonen, Maryna Siemienski, Heikki Kokkonen, Dwayne Weleschuk and Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho for donating their valuable time for this event!

Happy to see that Canada generates tremendous interest among Finns, we spent three days fielding questions from hundreds of people. It was also interesting to note that many people asked us if there was a bigger Canada exhibit at the fair... Unfortunately there was not, but that might be something to strive for next year. It is a matter of tapping into the right people in the various tourist agencies back in Canada!

By Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho