ROVANIEMI, Finland (AP) — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.
They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself in the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, which happily calls itself the “official hometown of Santa Claus."
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Antti Pakkanen, right, and Taina Torvela, members of a Rovaniemi housing network, stand by the Kemijoki River, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists gather at Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists gathered at Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
The Santa Claus Village theme park, which attracts more than 600,000 people annually, is especially popular during the holiday season.
“This is like my dream came true,” beamed Polish visitor Elzbieta Nazaruk. “I’m really excited to be here.”
Tourism is booming in Rovaniemi — which has hotel and restaurant owners, as well as city officials, excited as it brings lots of money to the town. However, not everyone is happy about the onslaught of visitors, 10 times the town's population, each year at Christmas time.
“We are worried about the overgrowth of tourism. Tourism has grown so rapidly, it’s not anymore in control,” said 43-year-old Antti Pakkanen, a photographer and member of a housing network that in September organized a rally through the city’s streets.
It’s a feeling that has been echoed in other popular European travel destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Florence.
Across the continent, locals have protested against “over-tourism” — which generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefiting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there.
Now, it seems to have spread north, all the way to the edges of the Arctic Circle.
Rovaniemi counted a record 1.2 million overnight visitors in 2023, almost 30 percent growth on 2022, after rebounding from pandemic travel disruptions.
“Nordic is a trend,” Visit Rovaniemi CEO Sanna Karkkainen, said as she stood in an ice restaurant, where snow carvers were working nearby.
“People want to travel to cool countries to see the snow, to see the Northern Lights, and, of course, to see Santa Claus," she added.
Thirteen new flight routes to Rovaniemi Airport opened this year, bringing passengers from Geneva, Berlin, Bordeaux and more. Most tourists come from European countries like France, Germany and the UK, but Rovaniemi’s appeal has also spread further.
Hotel availability is scarce this winter, and Tiina Määttä, general manager of the 159-room Original Sokos Hotel, expects 2024 to break more records.
Local critics of mass tourism say many apartment buildings in Rovaniemi’s city center are also used for accommodation services during peak season and are thus no longer available for residential use. They say the proliferation of short-term rentals has driven up prices, squeezed out long-term residents, and turned its city center into a “transient space for tourists."
Finnish law prohibits professional accommodation services in buildings intended for residential use, so campaigners are calling on authorities to act.
“The rules must be enforced better,” said Pakkanen.
Not everyone agrees. Mayor Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio notes some make “good money” on short-term rentals.
Either way, stricter regulations likely won’t be in place to impact this winter season, and despite the unease expressed by locals, mass tourism to Rovaniemi is probably only going to grow in 2025 — as visitors want to experience the unique atmosphere up north, especially during the holiday season.
“It’s Christmas time and we would love to see the Northern Lights,” says Joy, a visitor from Bangkok. “Rovaniemi seems to be a good place.”
Antti Pakkanen, right, and Taina Torvela, members of a Rovaniemi housing network, stand by the Kemijoki River, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists gather at Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists visit Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Tourists gathered at Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. East Coast began a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather Wednesday with a deluge of rain, rapid snowmelt and powerful gusts, creating dangerous conditions, due in part to an atmospheric river and developing bomb cyclone.
Ski resort operators in the Northeast watched their snow turn to mush with a deluge of rain and unseasonably high temperatures — followed by damaging winds — all in the same day, part of a powerful storm system that stretched from Florida to Maine.
Utilities braced for widespread power outages with winds projected to exceed 60 mph (97 kph) through late Wednesday. Isolated severe thunderstorms were possible southward into portions of Florida. Elsewhere, heavy lake effect snow was expected through Thursday in parts of Michigan, along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and dangerous cold enveloped parts of the Upper Midwest.
A key driver in the weather was an atmospheric river, which is a long band of water vapor that can transport moisture from the tropics to more northern areas, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. New England was bearing the brunt as the storm tapped moisture from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the U.S. Southeast, and transported it to places like Maine, he said.
Forecasters also said the storm had the potential to include a process that meteorologists call bombogenesis, or a “bomb cyclone.” That’s a rapid intensification of a cyclone in a short period of time, and it has the ability to bring severe rainfall.
“Is that what they’re calling it?” said Jen Roberts, co-owner of Onion River Outdoors sporting goods store in Montpelier, Vermont. She lamented that a five-day stretch of snowfall that lured ski customers into the store was being washed way, underscoring the region’s fickle weather. “But you know, this is New England. We know this is what happens.”
Alex Hobbs, a Boston college student, hopes that the weather won’t interfere with her plans to return home to San Francisco soon.
“I’m a little worried about getting delays with heavy wind and rain, possibly snow,” she said Wednesday.
In New England, the storm began with combination of fog and freezing rain Tuesday night into early Wednesday, making travel treacherous. A tractor-trailer carrying a load of oranges went off the Maine Turnpike in New Gloucester; the road was so treacherous that the oranges couldn’t be removed until a day later.
In New Hampshire, the Mount Washington Avalanche Center issued a special bulletin Wednesday for the Presidential Range of mountains, which received significant snowfall over the last two weeks. “Heavy rainfall could create dangerous and unpredictable avalanche conditions on steep snow-covered slopes,” the avalanche center warned.
Atop Mount Washington, wind gusts hit 89 mph (143 kph). The location is one of the planet’s windiest spots. Its highest gust recorded for 2023 was 132 mph (212 kph). From January to December of that year, it saw 145 days with gusts of 73 mph (117 kph) or higher.
The rain should help ease drought conditions in the region. As recently as last week, state environmental officials in Massachusetts raised drought concerns on Cape Cod, while a more critical drought declaration remained in effect in other parts of the state.
Flood watches were in effect in Vermont, where the capital city of Montpelier, hard hit in past floods, advised residents to elevate items in basements and low areas that are prone to flooding. And in Rhode Island, heavy surf and flooding closed several roads in Newport.
There were power outages scattered across the region. In Rhode Island more than 6,000 were without power at about 6 p.m., compared to 4,900 in Massachusetts and 4,300 in Maine.
In Higganum, Connecticut, 13 students and a bus driver had to wait inside their bus as utility crews and firefighters removed downed electrical wires that fell onto the bus. Once the area was deemed safe, students evacuated the bus and boarded another that took them to their parents, said Olivia Drake, public information officer for the Haddam Volunteer Fire Company.
It was the fire department’s third incident involving power lines on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, firefighters responded to a pole fire and a tree that was leaning on power lines and was smoldering.
Ski resorts around the Northeast were preparing visitors for a potentially messy day on Wednesday. “We don’t say the ‘r-word’ around here. It’s a forbidden word,” said Jamie Cobbett, marketing director at Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire. “We’re getting some moist wet weather today. We’ll put the mountain back together tonight, and hopefully we’ll be back skiing tomorrow with no problems.
At Vermont’s Sugarbush resort, skier Marcus Caston was waterlogged but shrugged it off. “The conditions are actually pretty good. The rain is making the snow nice and soft. It’s super fun,” he said. “We’re having fun out here.”
Associated Press writers Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont, Michael Casey and Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.
Rain water from a winter storm flows through the empty parking lot near the Panorama lift at the Gunstock Mountain Resort ski area , Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Gilford, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A man walks a dog as light rain falls during a winter storm, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
This Dec. 11. 2024 image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows a storm passing through the U.S. Atlantic east coast. (NOAA via AP)
Ducks stand on the rain water covered ice on Adams Pond during a winter storm, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A construction worker is bundled up in winter clothes while installing weather sheathing on a building during a rain storm, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A tractor-trailer hauling a load of oranges sits on the side of the road after sliding off the Maine Turnpike early on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in New Gloucester, Maine. (AP Photo/David Sharp)
A tractor-trailer hauling a load of oranges sits on the side of the road after sliding off the Maine Turnpike early on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in New Gloucester, Maine. (AP Photo/David Sharp)
A tractor-trailer hauling a load of oranges sits on the side of the road after sliding off the Maine Turnpike early on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in New Gloucester, Maine. (AP Photo/David Sharp)
Rain and snow falls near the Presumpscot River in Falmouth, Maine as officials are watching for flooding on New England rivers, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)
Passengers disembark from a ferry in a steady downpour of rain in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood on Wednesday Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
A jogger runs along the harbor as rain falls in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood on Wednesday Dec 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
A few boats move through the fog that had descended on the harbor in Boston on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
A person walks through the rain as a storm system and possible "bomb cyclone" hit the U.S. East Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
A person walks through the rain as a storm system and possible "bomb cyclone" hit the U.S. East Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
People walk through the rain as a storm system and possible "bomb cyclone" hit the U.S. East Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
A person walks through the rain as a storm system and possible "bomb cyclone" hit the U.S. East Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
People walk through the rain as a storm system and possible "bomb cyclone" hit the U.S. East Coast, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)
People walk to their cars as freezing rain and snow falls in Kennebunk, Maine on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)
FILE - Tristan Millstone reacts as he steps in water after kayaking across a flooded section of Neely Road to buy groceries after a major storm in Guerneville, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, file)
