VISIT KRISTINESTAD

Looking for a job in Kristinestad?⁠ ⁠ It’s worth checking the usual channels.⁠ ⁠ Also, @liveandworkkristinestad always knows what’s going on.⁠ ⁠ Here in Kristinestad we also have a Facebook group called “Työrinki Kristiinankaupungin seutu ja lähialueet”.⁠ ⁠ The name’s quite long ;) but that’s where many jobs in this region are posted by companies.⁠ ⁠ And they post often!

The southern tip of Kristiinankaupunki:⁠ ⁠ The Kanuunakalliot / Kanonviken.⁠ ⁠ A gift from the last Ice Age. A popular swimming and picknick place in the summer.

Centuries ago, the seaside town Kristinestad was even called the Paris of the west coast for a while.⁠ ⁠ You can discover the reason in the Maritime Museum, upstairs of the town library on the market square.⁠ ⁠ Kristiinankaupunki experienced the golden age of sailing ships in the 1830s and 1850s, when its port became the busiest in the Gulf of Bothnia and its merchant fleet one of the largest in the country.⁠ ⁠ In 1859, the city had 46 ship owners and 668 sailors and a quarter of the townspeople made their living from shipping.⁠ ⁠ The ships, also built here, sailed the seas of the world, carrying tar and timber in their bellies, and returned loaded with cotton, tobacco, sugar, and, most importantly, salt.⁠ ⁠ The merchant ships and sailors also brought exotic objects from the sailing voyages, together with new ideas from foreign cultures.⁠ ⁠ So what was new in Paris was known here first :)⁠

To make it easier for newcomers to settle down and visitors to visit, we can all lower the threshold to come here.⁠ ⁠ What the town governments can do is to invest not only in housing, employment, mobility or services, but in all of them at the same time in a coordinated effort.⁠ ⁠ Secondly, we need brand management. Kristinestad, for example, has a reputation, which is very unique on a national level and we continue to manage it systematically.⁠ ⁠ Meanwhile, each one of us can make a difference in our daily lives. Here are some ideas:⁠ ⁠ * See a stranger? Smile! Doesn’t cost a thing, but increases happiness.⁠ ⁠ * See a tourist looking lost? Offer help!⁠ ⁠ * Take care of your house. Each wooden house here is a sight in itself.⁠ ⁠ * Favor local businesses and services. Tourists appreciate local specialities.⁠ ⁠ * Discuss and comment in a constructive way in social media. No need to sugarcoat or censor things. Think critically. Strive to provide alternatives. Help to solve problems.⁠ ⁠ * Share your photos! We really appreciate all of you tagging us with @visitkristinestad or #visitkristinestad.

According to @yle 26.10.2020, good workspaces and the opportunity to work remotely have become an increasingly important criteria when considering to build new homes.⁠ ⁠ The trend is now visible in house factories. ⁠ ⁠ “For private homes, people are more and more asking for dedicated spaces to work and hold remote meetings without having to worry about other family members running in the background”, said the CEO of @Kannustalo, one of the Finnish house manufacturers.⁠ ⁠ “And so, a large walk-in closet can be turned into a workspace, for example. Also, work areas can be created on the fly in the living room with moving walls. Third, a guest house in the back yard can work as a remote office. And why not your child’s room when he/she is at school?”⁠ ⁠ Now, all you need is an affordable lot to build your dream home.⁠ ⁠ In Kristinestad we have some! ;)

According to @yle, even before the pandemic, more than 800 000 Finns were considering moving to the countryside.⁠ ⁠ Also, until about a decade ago, all land beyond the biggest cities were considered countryside and the whole idea of “countryside” was considered a so-called weak signal.⁠ ⁠ But, according to @sitrafund, that signal is no longer weak.⁠ ⁠ 1. The first realization is that our lives are no longer a question of living only in one place or another. Our homes can today be multi-local.⁠ ⁠ 2. Climate change demands everyday choices from all of us. Eating less meat and a rise in vegetarian lifestyle both impact agriculture in a new way. The second reason is that we need to increase our self-sustainability. Both are changing the composition and the number of jobs in the countryside.⁠ ⁠ 3. Domestic traveling becomes more popular, because flying abroad and long distance traveling is becoming less popular. Both increase the demand for more employees in the countryside.⁠ ⁠ 4. Working remotely is a norm. 43 % of Finns already do work that is not location specific. Out of the rest, many would want to, but cannot - yet. ⁠ ⁠ 5. The image of the countryside itself is changing. Even if in the 90s the countryside was seen as a backyard to quickly get away from, today it holds a promise of a slow but high quality life.⁠ ⁠ 6. Finally, there is an intermediate layer between cities and countryside called municipal towns. There, you get the best of both worlds. In Finland we today have 56 such towns and Kristinestad is one of them. More info at @kuntaliitto.

@100syytamatkaillasuomessa (100 Reasons to travel in Finland) is the annual campaign of the Finnish Association of Tourism Organizations in Finland.⁠ ⁠ The purpose is to present one hundred new domestic travel attractions each year for people to explore and enjoy.⁠ ⁠ Kristiinankaupunki has participated for many years and in 2020 was represented by @hotelli_krepelin.⁠ ⁠ Due to the pandemic, the summer 2020 was a record year for both the campaign and Kristinestad. The campaign created more than 60 million ad impressions that caused a record volume of traffic to the 100 Reasons website.⁠ ⁠ This resulted in quite a rush of visitors to Krepelin and also to Kristinestad, and up to 95% of them were first timers!⁠ ⁠ So a whole new generation (or two) really discovered the town for the first time!⁠ ⁠ Is your location ready for the summer 2021? Regardless of the vaccines, we are expecting a second domestic travel wave to hit us again.

We have a natural hunger for these landmarks in time.⁠ Take the prevalence of New Year’s resolutions:⁠ ⁠ At the start of a new year, we feel like we have a clean slate. It’s the ‘fresh start effect’: all the past failures are from last year and I can think: ⁠ ⁠ ‘Those are not me anymore. That’s the old me. That’s not the new me.’⁠ ⁠ What we’re doing on New Year’s Day is more like a mental accounting.⁠ ⁠ The New Me starts today!⁠ ⁠ And so, the New Year’s resolutions should really be called New Year’s absolutions.⁠ ⁠ Happy New Year!⁠

“Walking through the narrow streets of Kristiina and admiring the old beautiful wooden houses and courtyards, where you can also see the street, you can sense the city's history and times when the city had the largest merchant fleets in the 19th century and in 1792 when the city prospered.⁠ ⁠ Count Peter Brahe founded the city in 1649 during the reign of Queen Kristiina. The town hall was founded in 1856 and at the same time fine commercial and residential apartments were built.⁠ ⁠ Today, of course, the cityscape has changed from those years, but the old buildings and the past are still preserved. If you want to learn more about history, you can go for guided walks or, for example, ghost walks to listen to history and real ghost stories.”⁠ ⁠ Johanna, Finland⁠