About the artwork

For all we know this must be the first poster marketing the Finnish winter and Lapland after the war. During the 1930´s the local and national Tourist Associations worked hard to promote Rovaniemi and Finnish Lapland as an exotic destination for the adventureous traveller. Small hotels were built, among others the proud ”Fell-hotel” at Pallas.

During the winter of 1944–1945, after the wars, everyone in Finland was already aware of the bitter truth when the newspapers reported that ‘Northern Finland will be a lost paradise for a long time’.

Similarly, Jorma Tolonen, one of the leading activists in tourism, said the following in an address to the Helsinki General Tourist Association:

‘Nothing has escaped the destructiveness of the retreating German troops. The proud network of Lapp tourist cabins and hotels has been reduced to rubble. Not a single bed remains.’

Terijoki, Suursaari (Hogland), Petsamo and Viipuri – all large and well-loved tourist resorts – were now gone. Lapland was blown to smithereens. All the money was gone. The only conclusion to be drawn was that tourism had to be relocated from the east and north to the west, south and centre of Finland.

The future lay in the archipelago and the lakes, it was thought – Lapland would have to wait.

But Lapland was never actually abandoned: Pallas soon got a new and appealing hotel and the Pohjanhovi hotel in Rovaniemi was also resurrected. It seemed as if tourism in the fells just couldn’t be broken – and the tourists were able to bring in precisely what the nation so desperately needed: foreign currency and international goodwill.