In a new article, Weronika Mothes, Senior Business Development Manager for the Nordics at Profitroom, highlights a small statistic she believes hotels in South and Central Finland may be overlooking.
The familiar guest
Hotels in the region typically serve Finnish families, couples seeking a lake and a sauna, and local event visitors, with calendars that fill in July and empty by September. According to Visit Finland figures cited in the article, however, the Lakeland region saw international overnight stays grow by 6% in the first half of 2026. Growth slowed to 1% in June, so Mothes calls the signal early, but still worth acting on.
Why the record year was not about them
Finland's national hotel occupancy reached 55% in 2025, yet domestic travel fell by 1%. Foreign visitors rose 13% nationally, but that growth was concentrated in Helsinki, which took about 36% of international overnight stays thanks to business and conference travel, and Lapland, which captured roughly 74% of international winter visitors to the northern Nordic region. Elsewhere, growth was only 0.4%. Mothes says hotels in the south and centre were right to conclude the headline did not apply to them.
Why the 6% matters
The Lakeland rise is separate from the Helsinki and Lapland stories. It suggests international guests drawn by lakes and nature are arriving on their own, before hotels have done anything to attract them, which Mothes finds more interesting than the bigger headline numbers.
Two checks this week
- Pull booking data and look for international guests appearing in small numbers where they were absent a year or two ago.
- Review the website: does anything speak to a nature-seeking guest from abroad, or is it written only for Finnish visitors?
Takeaway
Most hotels in the region have not asked these questions yet. Profitroom's Nordics team is offering to help hotels examine whether the growth is already reaching them.
Originally published by Profitroom: Profitroom: A Quiet International Growth Signal for Finland's Lakeland Hotels
