Jämsä’s million-euro nature tourism effort lacks unified trails

Jämsä has spent about one million euros developing nature tourism, but the Finnish town still lacks an official hiking network linking its numerous natural attractions, Yle reports.

The area has a long-term vision for an almost 170-kilometre main hiking route that would serve both residents and tourists. However, the trails remain scattered, and negotiations with landowners are still unfinished.

About half of the funding has been used to plan and build the hiking network, according to Annastiina Meriläinen, the town’s trail manager. Despite the investment, only a handful of concrete new sites have been completed.

The projects have been funded mainly through public support from foundations, while less than a third of the money has come from the town itself.

Construction is complicated by fragmented land ownership. Around 250 privately owned properties lie along the planned main route, and a single landowner’s refusal can stop the route from continuing.

“The route cannot even be marketed before the land-use permits are in order,” Meriläinen said.

The town has built several lean-to shelters, campfire sites and a viewpoint, while existing trails have been repaired and cleared. Most signs and guide maps have yet to be installed and are due to be taken into the terrain during the autumn.

The trails are currently difficult for tourists to find, including visitors to the Himos tourism area. Maija Suutarinen, who represents the Himos area association, said visitors want activities but need properly signposted routes.

“You need to know where the route starts and ends, whether you can pump up your tyres, whether there is a ski café and whether there is a toilet,” Suutarinen said.

New barbecue sites and viewpoints alone do not create a hiking network, she said. The entire journey must be planned, rather than consisting only of individual points of interest.

Residents currently help guide visitors who get lost. Couples who regularly stay in holiday homes at Himos said they had encountered tourists confused on forest paths.

“If you think about tourism at Himos at all, I would put the routes in order first,” Tapani Sievänen said.

Local resident Martti Nurminen, who walks the nature trails during his daily outings, said he had often directed hikers to a shelter after finding them on the wrong forest paths.

Jämsä is discussing the future of the network with landowners through an agreement-based model. The town held a public trail-planning evening last week, while the local cycling club CC Ilves has criticised the town for not listening to clubs’ views on route planning.