Almost 11,000 visitors in Siida’s exhibitions in July

The statistics on June and July show that Siida has had a busy summer, and that’s exactly what it has felt like at the Customer Service.

– On our record day, 543 people bought a ticket, Minna Väisänen, the Head of the Customer Service of the Sámi Museum Siida tells. – And we’ve had several days when we’ve sold more than 450 tickets this summer.

More than half of the July visitors were from abroad. In July, Siida’s exhibitions were visited by 3846 people from Finland and by 6888 foreigners. The biggest nationality among the foreign travellers were Germans (1284), with Swiss (874) and Poles (589) representing a much smaller group.

The total number of visitors includes, in addition to those visiting the exhibitions, the tourists who came to the Customer Service of Metsähallitus to get information on hiking and to purchase licences, and those visiting the Tourist Info of Inari. In July, Siida had altogether 24,408 customers, which is approximately 4000 more than in the previous summers.

– Tourists have especially been interested in the trails in the neighbourhood of the village Inari: the Juutua Trail and the Pielpajärvi Trail, Kirsi Mansikka-aho, Customer Service Officer of Metsähallitus, says. – In addition, people have asked a lot about the Lemmenjoki area, and we have given them information on hiking and services in the Lemmenjoki National Park.

The summer season of the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida will go on until 19 September. Until that date, Siida and the Restaurant Sarrit on its first floor will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The historical open-air museum is also open in the summer season. After 19 September, Siida will be open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The temporary exhibitions of Siida will be complemented by the outdoor exhibition A Fighting Spirit, a poster exhibit with a stand, by a group called Suohpanterror. The exhibition will be available at Siida until 30 September.