From 15 to 18 January, LRE Foundation members in Finland represented Liberation Route Europe at the international Matka Travel Fair in Helsinki. The fair is Northern Europe’s largest travel industry event, where travel enthusiasts and professionals from nearly 70 countries come together. This year’s event welcomed a total of 56,400 visitors and exhibitors and offered a great opportunity to introduce the Liberation Route Europe network to a broad audience and highlight our members in Finland.
Since 2023, when LREF welcomed our first Finnish member, Muisti Centre of War and Peace, the network has steadily expanded in Finland. This year’s exhibition stand brought together World War Two history sites from across Eastern Finland, with four of the network’s five Finnish members participating in the fair. Representing the network were the Muisti Centre of War and Peace, the Ilomantsi Battlegrounds Trail, the Kuhmo Winter War Museum, and the Salpa Line Museum.
This year also marked the first occasion where Eastern Finland’s military history destinations were presented collectively as a unified network. These sites are connected by the Via Karelia tourist route, which follows Finland’s eastern border.
For Finland, the Second World War encompassed three separate conflicts, shaped by the country’s difficult position between German and Soviet strategic interests. The participating sites shed light on this complex history and the lasting impact of the war on the region.
We are pleased to be bringing this important WWII history into the international narrative, and representation at events such as Matka Travel Fair is an essential part of highlighting this work to the international travel industry.
