First impressions
Let’s be honest here – at first, I thought I never would have any reason to visit Kuhmo. My mental image of the city consisted mainly of:
- Old moldy buildings in the middle of nowhere
- Depressing landscapes
- Lack of activities
- Ageing population
I have never visited the place and neither have my friends, up until now. However, reading about the experiences of my classmates have changed my opinions somewhat.
What is common between the posts of Ricky, Karkki, Milla, Jasmin and Liisa, is the fact that they all returned from their trip to Kuhmo with some ideas how to improve the tourism in the area. At the destination, many facilities that had potential to be great tourism attractions were closed. Additionally, Milla got the impression that no one seemed to know who are the target customers for literary tourism. Liisa found it difficult to connect attractions to literary tourism without the explanation they got after a tour around the city. This indicates that visitor guiding needs improvement, as all tourists will not have the opportunity to have a guide with them.
Sounds lovely.
Is there still hope for Kuhmo?
However, Jasmin lifted up existing wellbeing tourism services and Milla suggested using Chamber Orchestra as a “Trojan horse” to attract potential tourists to the area. Ricky found the local gold mine soothing, and the other students found other hidden gems as well. To me, it seems like the area has much untapped potential. There is music, gold, spa, history, literature and much more, all the sort of things that could be combined to make a great tourism experience. If the operators just co-operated and invested into developing the region and the services. Personally, I’d love to gather up some gold and visit historical sites while being at it, dine in a historical environment and relax afterwards in a spa.
So yes. While I do not see Kuhmo as an appealing destination right now, I see the region has much potential and could be developed to be a destination of high quality. What about you? Would you like to join me on a trip to Kuhmo in the future?