Santa Park

Santa Park is an amusement park and visitor attraction near Rovaniemi in the Lapland region of Finland.‚ The park is designed to emulate the cavern residence of Santa Claus on the Arctic circle. Popular culture often depicts Santa Claus (or joulupukki in Finnish) coming from Lapland. Therefore, tourists come every year to Rovaniemi to meet Santa Claus.

Santa Park was opened on 28 November 1998 as an amusement park.‚ The concept was created by Santaworld Ltd. (UK) and the cost of construction was 6.7 million Euros. The ownership consisted of Finnish companies such as Finnair, MTV, Sampo, Lasten Pivn Stiö, Posti. Ministry of Trade and Industry was also involved. As an amusement park Santa Park did not reach its economical goals. Renewal of the concept was attempted in 2002 with a new ownership structure where the municipality of Rovaniemi was involved. The new concept featured Santa Claus, Christmas and Lappish culture and nature. On 24 March 2009 ownership was transferred to Santa’s Holding Ltd. where the majority is held by Mr. Ilkka Lnkinen and Mrs. Katja Lnkinen-Ikheimonen.