27 000 exhibition visitors at Sámi Museum and Nature Center Siida in 2021

Like everywhere else, the Covid-19 pandemic can be seen in the number of visitors in The Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Center Siida.

In 2021 a total of 27 400 people bought tickets to the exhibitions, which is 30 % less than in 2020, and 57 % less than the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The pandemic hasn’t been the only explanation to this drop in visitors, as Sámi museum and Nature center Siida was closed all of May, and in this ongoing winter season our opening hours have been shorter than on previous years.

The renovation of Siida-building started in June 2021, and all exhibitions were in the Sámi museum’s open-air museum. Open-air museum visits take place outside, rain or shine, which has affected the appeal to buy a ticket and visit the open-air museum. During autumn 2021 lighting was installed in the open-air museum. Sámi museum and Nature Center Siida’s new exhibition will open on June 1^st, 2022, after which you can visit both inside and outside exhibitions.

Like on previous years, the busiest season of 2021 was during the summer months, with July having the most visitors all year. 75% of visitors were Finnish, whereas in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 only 39% were Finnish.  Out of all the foreign visitors most were from Germany.

When comparing different ticket types sold, we can see a clear trend of group travel changing into solo- or family travel. This trend could already be seen before the pandemic, but covid has clearly emphasized this change. People clearly want to travel safely with only their closest family.

In the Sámi Museum’s Skolt Sámi Heritage House in Sevettijärvi there were 832 visitors in 2021. The Heritage House is open only during the summer season. The Heritage House and the Open-Air Museum on its grounds contain information on Skolt Sámi history and display the living and construction methods from two different eras.