Finland at a glance
Around two-third of Finland is covered by forest and about a tenth by water. In the far north the White nights, during which the sun does not set, last for around 10 weeks of the summer. In winter the same area goes through nearly eight weeks when the sun never rises above the horizon.
Hundreds of years of Swedish rule up to 1809 were followed by a further century of Russian control. The country displays distinctive elements of past Scandinavian and Russian links in its design and culture.
Independence in 1917 failed to stem the demands of Finland's giant eastern neighbour. World War II saw fierce fighting along Finland's eastern border.
Finnish troops mounted a vigorous response to Soviet forces and stalled their advance, but the country was eventually forced to cede 10% of its territory and make extensive war reparation payments to the Soviets.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s allowed Finland to step out of the Cold War shadow. It applied for membership of the EU soon after its friendship treaty with the Soviet Union became void in 1991, becoming a full member in 1995.
Finland is the only Nordic EU member to use the euro as the national currency.
The country spends heavily on education, training and research - investment that pays dividends by delivering one of the best-educated and trained workforces in the world.
This has been a key factor in the development of a modern, competitive economy in which a cutting-edge telecommunications sector has been added to the traditional timber and metals industries.
The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!
Throughout the ages, many Finns have feared hearing the words "the Russians are coming". Today, the coming of the Russians brings economic prosperity for the Finnish tourism industry.
According to Statistics Finland, Russian tourists left over 1 billion euros (over 1.5 billion USD) in Finland in the period between May and October 2007.
In a study conducted by the Helsinki School of Economics, it was established that out of all Russians travelling to Finland, 18% were travelling to Finland, 50% were entering the country as part of an extended European tour, and 32% were using Finland as a transit stop.
Kari Halonen from the Helsinki City Tourist and Convention Bureau says that Russian travellers are most interested in the time prior to independence when Finland was part of Tsarist Russia, and also to some extent the history relative to Soviet times.
Helsinki has differentiated itself from other Nordic tourist destinations precisely based on this history with the slogan - Helsinki, the city where eastern and western cultures meet.
Sari Lammesalo, Director of Finland's Tourism Development Centre in St. Petersburg said that "Russians were top among the tourists who visited Finland in 2007". Some 90,000 Russians visited Finland over the New Year holidays.
Finland spent 26.5 million euros advertising itself as a destination in foreign countries last year. The Finnish Tourist Board released statistics on 19th February, which recorded that the growth of tourism to Finland increased by 6.2 per cent from the previous year.
Commenting on Russian tourism in 2007, Jaakko Lehtonen, the General Director of the Finnish Tourist Board said that "Russian tourists were in a class of their own. Never before has Finland registered more than 850,000 overnight stays from people from the same nation in 12 months".
The Finnish tourism industry must now ensure that the influx from our eastern neighbour continues, and that the services that Finland can provide are second to none.