Have you ever caught yourself defi­ning tra­vel­ling desti­na­ti­ons by their ste­reo­ty­pi­cal cha­rac­te­ris­tics? In Rome you should visit the migh­ty Colos­se­um. In Egypt you have seen ever­ything after the pyra­mids. In Ice­land all you need is the hot springs. Visit Japan when the cher­ry blossom is the pret­tiest, Lapland when the snow is the deepest and Cana­ry Islands when the sun shi­nes down to beaches the warmest.

This is the tra­vel­ling world that we know of and that we are used to. Howe­ver, future might bring total­ly new aspects and chal­len­ges into the desti­na­ti­on plan equa­ti­on. Cli­ma­te chan­ge and mass tou­rism to name a few fac­tors are chan­ging the world and most popu­lar visi­t­ing sites.

Switz­er­land and Lapland are alrea­dy facing the­se fac­tors and the need of chan­ge. Lap­pish main sea­son, win­ter, starts in Novem­ber and lasts until late April or even May. First tou­rists arri­ve by the end of Novem­ber. A typi­cal holi­day inclu­des rein­de­er sled­ges, hus­ky rides and – if you are lucky – auro­ra borea­lis in the sky, while spee­ding around with snow mobi­les. But. What hap­pens when the­re is no snow?

Cli­ma­te chan­ge is tru­ly showing its many faces in tra­vel­ling. Too cold or too warm, too litt­le snow or too much rain. Local tra­vel com­pa­nies have to get used to pro­blems cau­sed by fac­tors that are uncon­troll­ab­le. Switz­er­land, the home of win­ter sports is facing the same pro­blem as Lapland with slo­pes lacking snow and gra­du­al­ly shor­tening win­ter sea­son. Shor­ter sea­son means ful­ly packed ski­ing or holi­day cen­tres, more traf­fic around the area and lack of peace­ful­ness or accom­mo­da­ti­on. Cen­tra­li­zed tou­rism crea­tes pres­su­re on local tra­vel busi­nes­ses, but – natu­ral­ly – oppor­tu­nities for growth too.

Des­pi­te the worry­ing sce­n­a­ri­os in the future, chan­ge can be also seen as an oppor­tu­ni­ty. Life doesn’t stop in tra­vel­ling loca­ti­ons even though the cir­cum­s­tan­ces are chan­ging. Tra­vel­lers are loo­king for inte­res­ting new and authen­tic oppor­tu­nities to learn from the cul­tu­re and gather uni­que expe­ri­en­ces. This could be a win­ning edge for tho­se working with tourists.

Locals can come up with new pro­ducts and ser­vices that are based on every day life. In Fin­land, this could mean ber­ry picking tours, fishing trips, eating local food out­doors or even tra­di­tio­nal cot­ta­ge games such as mölk­ky. You can even adopt a tree and go to hug it! In Switz­er­land, far­mers can give pri­va­te tours to farm side and show how to milk a cow, intro­du­ce how cheese is pro­du­ced or teach the basics of play­ing the alphorn.

As it is said, ‘the secret of chan­ge is to focus not on figh­t­ing the old but on buil­ding the new’. We in Alp­land embrace the new winds in tra­vel­ling world and look for the most authen­tic, inte­res­ting and local­ly sup­por­ted opti­ons for year-around tra­vel­ling. We are not afraid of chan­ge, as it is ine­vi­ta­ble. Sea­sons chan­ge and year-around opti­ons for many loca­ti­ons is inde­ed a necessity.

We have tra­v­eled in various loca­ti­ons in both Lapland and Switz­er­land, gathe­ring know­ledge from the locals and crea­ted a new way of loo­king into neglec­ted loca­ti­ons and respect them. We under­stand the value of local pro­du­ce and ser­vice, the ori­gi­nal way of living in both beau­ti­ful cul­tures, also valuing our own roots and cul­tu­ral heritage.

Tou­rism shouldn’t be arti­fi­cial­ly crea­ted but proud­ly intro­du­cing local food, cul­tu­re and dai­ly expe­ri­en­ces for others. We want to crea­te oppor­tu­nities for nor­mal peop­le to expe­ri­ence what we think is beau­ti­ful: natu­re, peace and authen­tic way of living. Come along with us if you are wil­ling to embrace the new too!