Finland - the best country in the world?
The World's best hotels:
-Condé Nast Traveller (UK): one of the "100 best hotels in the World" in 2003, 2004, 2005
-Condé Nast Traveler (US): "the World's Best Places to Stay", Gold List in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
-Starwood Luxury Collection: "Hotel of the Year" in 2005
-Travel+Leisure Magazine: "the World's Best Hotels for Value" or "500 Best Hotels in the World" in 2004, 2005, 2006
-European Business Magazine: one of the "Top 20 Business Hotels" in 2005
-Global Traveller Magazine: "the Best Hotel in Europe" in 2007
This hotel is also recommended by the bestseller book 1000 Places To See Before You Die.
Warning: This is the most expensive hotel in Finland!
The best new hotel in the world in 2006:
The World's Most Cleanest and Most Livable Country 2007
According to the large survey of Reader's Digest Finland is the most cleanest and greenest country in the world. Also the world's 2nd best quality of natural water was in Finland. Norway won that subcategory but Finland was the winner of the survey overall. Sources of the survey were Human Development Index (UN 2006) and Environmental Sustainability Index (World Economics Forum, Yale University & Columbia University 2005). More details at
http://www.rd.com/content/best-places-to-live-green/?trkid=rdmagkw_0710 and
http://www.rd.com/greencountries.
The Top Ten Nations in the World to Visit 2007 & the Most Eccentric Place to Stay in the World
The Lonely Planet Blue List writes that Finland is among ”the Top Ten Nations in the World to Visit in 2007”: ”Cool zone of design in Helsinki, surrounded by remote wilderness areas – Finland is a breath of fresh air on a European adventure”.
The Kemi SnowCastle, the Mammut Snow Hotel", in Northern Finland is listed as ”the Most Eccentric Place to Stay in the World”. Besides, Aurora Borealis, the northern lights, were described as ”the World's Most Amazing Natural Phenomenon”.
Scandinavian Travel Award 2004 (by German travel specialists): The best tourism product in Scandinavia
(cruises in West Africa, on the Mediterranean, on the Arctic Sea, on the Baltic Sea, the Czar`s Route from Finnish archipelago to the blue Lake Saimaa, an old styled but renewed Finnish ship)
2. prize: Astrid Lindgren World in Sweden
(glass & ice igloos, sleep in your own bed and see the northern lights or the midnight sun, also Finnish Quality Travel Award 2005)
Scandinavian Travel Award 2005 (by German travel specialists): The best tourism product in Scandinavia: The best Scandinavian travel destination
1. Helsinki (the capital of Finland)
The US magazine Dream World Cruise Destinations 2005:
Helsinki got awards in two categories: Most Improved Destination, Destination with Best Tour Guides
The World's safest cities according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting in 2005:
1 = Luxembourg 122.5 points
2 = Helsinki (the capital of Finland), Bern, Geneva, Zürich 120 points
The best airlines in the World and in Europe:
The users of Amanda Internet Portal (open only for travel business professionals) made choices in June 2001.
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair, 2 = SAS, 3 = Lufthansa
-The best airline in the world: 1 = Thai Airways International, 2 = Finnair, 3 = Singapore Airlines
The Travel News Magazine by travel specialist gave prizes in 2004:
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair (2nd prize in the whole world), 2 = British Airways
Grand Travel Awards 2005 by the Travel News Magazine:
-The best airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair
-The world's best intercontinental airline: 1 = Thai Airways, 2 = Finnair
The Guardian and Observer newspaper group's prizes (over 22,000 readers responded to this survey) in 2004:
-The best short-haul airline in Europe: 1 = Finnair, 2 = Jet2, 3 = Air Berlin
The World's safest airlines in 1973-2004 according to Aero International Magazine
http://www.aerointernational.de : Finnair, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways.
The best airline in Europe in 2005 (the Capital Magazine, Germany):
1 = Finnair
The best airline (service, comfort on board, ground services) for short and medium haul in 2005 and 2006 (
http://www.travelchannel.de, Germany):
1 = Finnair
1 = Finnair
The World's best theme parks for children in 2005:
The list is based on the survey by the British Independent on Sunday.
1 = Disney World Resort, Orlando, the USA
2= Europa Park, Freiburg, Germany
3 = Disneyland Hong Kong
Moominworld also got the Golden Pony Award 2007 by the Games & Parks Industry Magazine. "Moominworld is welcoming, well themed and full of educational contents", the Jury says.
Other awards:
IATA's Global Airport Monitor Survey 2001 is based on the opinions of over 90 000 passengers. The airport of Helsinki (Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport) got three prizes:
1. The best airport in Europe
2. The best airport in the world in the category of airports under 15 million passengers
3. The 3rd best airport in the world in the category of all airports (1 = Singapore Changi, 2 = Sydney Kingsford Smith, 3 = Helsinki-Vantaa)
Helsinki-Vantaa has been chosen (by IATA) as the best airport in the world for four times. In 2005 Helsinki-Vantaa was chosen as the world´s best airport of its size in the international AETRA Survey by IATA and ACI.
Airport World Magazine has given Airport Service Excellence Award for Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
World Architecture magazine has voted the Finnish Embassy in Berlin the best new building in the world in 2001. It represent the modern Finnish architecture.
United Nations Development Programme 2001 says that Finland is the best country in the world in using and developing today's new technology. The USA is 2nd, Sweden 3rd and Japan 4th on the list. There are more internet connections per person in Finland than anywhere else in the world. Mobile phones are also very common in Finland because Finland is the home country of Nokia. See
http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/ .
The World Economic Forum rated Finland as the global leader in information technology. Finland got the highest score on the group's global information technology report in 2003. The USA was rated second and Singapore third. For more details click
http://www.weforum.org .
The OECD programme for international student assesment says that Finnish teenage schoolchildren perform better than any others in mathematics and reading. Finland was the only nation placed in the top five in all of the tree disciplines that were assessed in PISA (2000 and 2003). See
http://www.pisa2006.helsinki.fi .
PS. Nokia is a small town near the city of Tampere, Finland. See
http://www.nokiankaupunki.fi (click "Foreign visitors" on the left). The roots of Nokia Corporation lie on the Nokia River which gave the name Nokia.
WEF ranked the business environment in Finland the best in the world in 2001. WEF says that Finland is the most competitive nation in the world and IMD says that Finland is the most competitive nation in Europe and the third most competitive in the world in 2001.
ESI 2002 ranking says that Finland's place is at the top of World Economic Forum's Environmental Sustainability Index.
An United Nations (UN) report (published on March 5th, 2003) ranks 122 countries on the quality of their water supplies. According to this UN water report Finnish water is the purest in the world. Canada became 2nd and New Zealand was the 3rd one. Surprisingly, Belgium comes bottom of the heap. More details on
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/03/05032003173611.asp and
http://www.un.org .
Women in Finland
Finnish women were first in Europe and second in the whole world to gain the right to vote in 1906. Besides, women also got the right to take part in elections as nominees!
Only a couple of countries in the world have a woman as President. Finland is one of them. According to the United Nations Finland is the 5th best country in the world for women.
Finnish Parliament (for years 2007-2011) has 84 female members - 42 % of the total.
Finnish females have also hold senior posts including Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament, Defence Minister, National Bank Governor etc.
Finlandia Hall (a congress and concert building) by Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) in Helsinki:
