For visitors

Sustainable tourism considers the current and future impacts of tourism to ensure that the needs of tourists, tourism companies, destinations, the environment and local communities are addressed both now and in the future.

Sustainable visitor behaviour in Pori – how to have a positive impact

In Pori, sustainability is not just a trendy word. Instead, it’s a way to ensure that the city and its nature, culture and people will also be well in the future. When you visit us, your actions matter more than you think. Here are a few concrete tips to make your trip both enjoyable and sustainable: 

1. Move smart – enjoy the views 

Walk or ride an e-scooter: Pori has a truly compact city centre, and the nature destinations are also surprisingly close to each other. If you choose walking, you will be able admire the changing architecture of the city centre or the parks that serve as a reminder of Pori’s fires. The e-scooter is also great for longer journeys. Alternatively, you can follow the next tip. 

Public transport is your friend: By local bus, you can reach destinations like Yyteri without the stress of having to find a parking space, or get from the Travel Centre to your accommodation in the city centre for just €1 on a Citylinja bus. And by the way, Pori’s buses run on renewable diesel! 

2. Eat local – enjoy meaningful flavours 

Choose restaurants that favour local food and seasonal produce. Pori’s fishermen and Satakunta’s food producers do great work, and you can show that you value their work with your choices. You can also learn more about the flavours of Satakunta here. 

Don’t hesitate to ask ”What is your local speciality?”  By doing this, you can support the region’s food culture and avoid unnecessary waste. By the way, did you know that Pori’s funniest pastry, the frog pastry, was originally created decades ago using leftover cake edges and pastries? Several of the city’s restaurants also sell surplus food at low prices via the ResQ Club app. 

A piece is cut from the green frog-shaped pastry.

3. Stay longer – less rushing, more meaning 

If you’ve come all the way here, why not stay a little longer? Short stays put a relatively greater burden on the environment and services. If you stay longer, you will support local businesses and have the time to experience Pori at more than just the surface level. 

A longer stay also means less travel back and forth – and more time to find the hidden gems that could bring your love of Pori to a whole new level. One day will not be enough for children to explore the entire Pelle Hermanni Park and its playgrounds, which amount to the size of five football pitches, and the three-kilometre shoreline of Yyteri offers enough things to do to keep you entertained for multiple days. And let’s not even get started on events… If you are interested in the events Pori has to offer, it might be better to just stay in Pori for the whole summer! 

4. Respect nature – don’t leave a mark 

Yyteri’s dunes are a rare thing. Do not take short cuts outside the marked routes, as the plants and sand dunes are sensitive to wear and tear, and we have had to take various measures to restore damaged dunes. Did you know that local schoolchildren have planted sand-binding lyme grass on the beach? Let’s value their work! You can also visit the Yyteri Visitor Centre, which offers many sustainability tips for the area and showcases various ecological construction materials. 

We are immensely proud of and grateful for our city’s diverse nature, where visitors are also honoured guests. Outdoor etiquette is the best guide for anyone venturing into nature, so it’s worth learning about it when planning your trip. Hiking trails run in places with the best scenery, so it’s a good idea to stay on them even for that reason. 

5. Social sustainability – treat people well 

Sustainability is not just about nature. Be polite and respectful towards other visitors and the locals. And don’t forget about the tourism workers – they make your trip possible. And when a Pori resident says “Men ny”, what they really mean is, “It was nice to meet you and welcome back!” 

Small things, such as thanking people and being patient during peak times in the Yyteri toilet queue or at the bar at a festival, create a pleasant atmosphere and support everyone’s well-being. Visiting Pori’s museums, which are free for people aged under 18, is a great sustainable choice that lets you experience history and culture. Pori’s museums have also been awarded the EcoCompass environmental certificate. As part of the EcoCompass efforts, Pori’s museums have developed their own environmental programme, which includes measures to reduce the environmental impact of the museums. 

6. Support local businesses – collect authentic memories 

Buy from local craftspeople or small businesses. This way, your money will stay in the area and support local livelihoods. Sustainable products can be identified by the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, the Green Key, the EcoCompass certificate, the Fairtrade Mark or the Sustainable Travel Finland label. 

Visit Pori’s guided tours showcase Pori life in many different ways and present the city’s special characteristics and traditions. Walking tours are also an excellent zero-emission mode of transport that is good for both the mind and the body. 

Attend events – from Pori Jazz to small art workshops and everything in between. Every purchased admission ticket is an investment in living urban culture. The local five-star festival atmosphere can also be experienced at Porispere festival with VIP tickets that let anyone feel like they are “a bit important” in the Pori way. 

7. Travel all year round – discover the different sides of Pori 

The summer in Pori and Yyteri is legendary, but the other seasons offer calm moments and new experiences. Year-round tourism balances the load and supports businesses outside the peak seasons. The benefits are also often felt in the visitor’s wallet: accommodation prices are lower outside of major events like SuomiAreena and the Pori Jazz festival. 

What does Yyteri look like in the winter sun? How do cultural events brighten up the dark season? Outside of beach season, Pori’s spa-like indoor swim centre, which makes massive use of solar energy, will appeal to all swimming enthusiasts. You can also get to know the essence of Pori life during the Day of Pori event, which actually takes place over multiple days, in September. During the bird migration season in spring, the Finnish national road 2 from Helsinki to Kallo in Pori, will take second place as its name suggests, as the highway in the sky will have more traffic than the city’s main road. Grab your binoculars and go listen to nature’s symphony! 

In Pori, sustainability is not a compromise – it’s the best way to travel. Here you can make choices that have a positive impact. At the same time, you will find more. 

  • Pori belongs to everyone, and everyone is welcome here as they are. At Visit Pori, we promote LGBTQ+-friendly tourism. We strive to develop our operations to ensure that we pay ever greater attention to LGBTQ+ visitors in our marketing, communications and daily activities. We’re not particularly prudish in Pori, meaning that everyone can proudly be themselves. Visit Pori is a member of the We Speak Gay community. 

  • Sustainable travel includes practical measures and personal choices. That is why we have drawn up sustainability principles, which we hope to use for promoting sustainable travel. You can find Visit Pori’s sustainability principles below.

    1. We engage in fair collaboration

    We develop tourism in collaboration with other travel operators in our area and industry. Together we will be better able to impact the future of travel and society. We want our region to be a good place to live and visit now and in the future, which is why we make decisions that are sustainable for the coming generations, too. We treat everyone fairly and with respect and engage in only fair and honest business practices.

    2. We take care of nature

    We protect nature, landscapes and biodiversity of our region. Our operations do not exceed nature’s capacity, but rather ensure opportunities for a good life and pure operating environment as well as the maintenance of biodiversity in our region for generations to come. We recognise the unique nature of destinations such as Yyteri and their significance as protected areas.

    3. We respect cultural heritage

    We cherish our regional cultural heritage with events such as Pori Jazz Festival, with its 50-year history; the protected 19th century district of Kivi-Pori; and the Ahlström Works, which is the largest ironworks area in all of Finland. Our objective is to depict, revitalise, maintain and strengthen culture in a genuine and respectful manner. This also means that we understand that cultures have always evolved in interaction and learned from each other.

    4. We promote well-being, human rights and equality

    We treat our employees, guests and residents of the region equally and respectfully regardless of their background. We take peoples’ special needs into consideration in our activities. We train, educate and encourage our personnel to act responsibly.

    5. We favour local options

    We support local products, services and companies and aim to employ people from the region. The Pori branded products we sell are sustainably produced. We promote residents’ and companies’ engagement in making travel-related decisions. For example, the reform of Pori’s brand was carried out in a participatory manner. The City of Pori has awarded well-being grants for residents’ own ideas with the theme ‘acts of love from Pori’ and organised town-hall meetings with different themes.

    6. We invest in safety and quality

    We ensure the safety of our personnel and guests as well as compliance with statutory requirements. The City of Pori has a chief security officer and works in close collaboration with various authorities in connection with events. Pori pays special attention to the safety of large public events. We develop our services and products quality first, thus enabling continuity of our own operations.

    7. We consider climate impacts

    We make climate-friendly choices and reduce our carbon footprint. Pori aims to be carbon neutral by the year 2030. In the future, we will monitor the load tourism places on the environment increasingly closely and aim for more efficient use of energy and other resources with this active monitoring.

    8. We communicate openly

    We communicate boldly in our region about sustainable travel and future plans and visions. We want Finland to be known globally for its sustainable tourism. We communicate openly about successes as well as challenges.

    9. We develop our operations continuously

    We are ready to reform our services and products in order to secure demand for them in the future, too. Stable finances and ethical business practices create the basis for sustainable development of our operations.

    10. We commit to the principles of sustainable tourism

    We take an active role in the promotion of sustainable travel and the implementation of these sustainable travel principles. We will draw up a sustainable tourism action plan, which we will integrate more closely into all of our activities in the future. We commit to taking measures and want to keep learning more.

  • In November 2008, Pori was awarded the title of Fair Trade City by Reilun kaupan edistämisyhdistys ry. Pori was the second city in Finland to attain the title after meeting the criteria for becoming a Fair Trade City. The title of Fair Trade City or Municipality has ben awarded to Turku, Jyväskylä. Espoo, Helsinki, Joensuu, Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi, Lahti, Lempäälä, Lohja, Riihimäki, Pori, Tampere, Utajärvi, Vantaa and Viitasaari.

    The City of Pori has committed to promoting fair trade by decision of the City Council. With the title, the City of Pori has committed to measures such as serving fairly produced coffee and tea in its events and informing its residents about Fair Trade. The City has organised a space at the main library where you can find further information about Fair Trade. One of the key criteria of the title is increasing the number of the City’s procurements that are sustainable and continuous development of its operations.

    The Pori Fair Trade promotion work group aims to advance the issue of Fair Trade in Pori. You can find the group on social media on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

     

  • By decision of the city council, in 2016 the City of Pori joined the Hinku municipalities that aim to reduce emissions by 80%. In the Towards Carbon Neutral Municipalities project the (Hinku) municipalities and their companies, residents and experts come up with ideas for preventing greenhouse gas emissions and implement these ideas.

    Pori is a part of the network of Hinku municipalities, which means it aims to significantly reduce its emissions. Pori is committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 80% by the year 2030. The City of Pori has many on-going projects that will help with reaching this goal. More information about these can be found on the Hinku pages (in Finnish).

     

    

  • The shores and area of Yyteri are preserved in line with the protection objectives of the Natura 2000 network. Protecting the area is vitally important for the preservation of natural diversity and beauty. The protection measures ensure the conservation of the area’s natural habitats and species. The ever-changing sands of Yyteri form the largest continuous and active dune area in Southern Finland. Yyteri is also one of the most significant conservation zones of endangered dune biotopes in Finland.

    Yyteri beach was awarded the prestigious Blue Flag certificate in the beach category in 2022. The certificate is awarded by Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE international), which is the world’s largest environmental education organisation. Prerequisites for being awarded the certificate include a number of precise criteria regarding the environment, safety and accessibility.

    Blue Flag is one of the world’s most recognised eco-labels awarded to beaches, marinas and sustainable boating tourism operators. Yyteri beach is a pilot destination as the first Blue Flag beach in Finland.

    You can read more about sustainability measures in the Yyteri area here.