Edward Dutton

Coen and Dirkje Koenders have only been in the Oulu area for less than a month but they are already getting used to it.
‘There is so much rest and space and nature’ remarks Mrs Koenders, ‘while Holland is so stressful and crowded!’
The Dutch couple arrived a couple of weeks ago having taken over the hotel complex – actually a series of wooden cabins overlooking forest and lakes - attached to the Kierikki Centre. The archaeological museum and excavation site recently hit the international news because ‘prehistoric chewing gum’ was found there by a young archaeologist. The centre is in Yli-Ii, a village about an hour from Oulu with a population over just over 2300.

Dreams of Moving Abroad

‘We always had a dream of going and living abroad but there were always reasons not to go!’ laughed Mrs Koenders ‘such as small children or a new house.’ But by 2005, with their children already grown-up and at college, ‘we didn’t have these reasons anymore.’ And they thought to themselves, ‘Let’s do something new . . . it’s now or never!’
The middle-aged couple, from Doetinchem, the east of Holland, went to an ‘emigration fair’ in Utrecht at which there were seven thousand people all looking to go abroad. They had intended move to Sweden because, as Mrs Koenders put it, ‘We love Scandinavian countries and we’d been there for holidays.’ It is also a popular destination amongst other emigrating Dutch.
Many of the stalls were about Sweden but the representative on the single Finland stall – about Oulu – managed to talk the adventure-hungry couple around. They are hardly alone in wanting to leave the Netherlands with people emigrating at a rate of three-hundred day . . . but very few Dutch people know about Oulu.

Making things ‘Gezellig’

The Kierikki Centre Hotel, which the couple have taken over, offers picturesque log cabins – complete with sauna and modern conveniences – overlooking scenic, typically ‘Finnish’ views of the lakes and the forests for 90 euros per night for a double room and 65 euros for a single. There are also well-furnished conference facilities – which include a log fire - and a restaurant for guests and visitors to the centre such as school-children and business people.
‘We want to attract more foreign tourists,’ said Mrs Koenders, ‘Firstly from Holland and then from Belgium and Germany.’
Mr Koenders also had plans to gradually increase the hotel’s turnover from twenty-two percent last year to thirty-five percent and then maybe more.
‘We’ve got all kinds of plans’ the couple mused. ‘We’re going to make a camp site, we’re going make it more cosy’ or ‘gezellig’ to use the special, untranslatable Dutch term for this idea.

Plans for the Future

The couple also intend to advertise the fact that they are open 24-hours a day if truckers, cyclists or passers-by want coffee for example. 24-hour opening is quite rare in this part of Finland. So far the entrepreneurial pair have been glad of the publicity that their take over the Kierikki hotel has received.
‘We’ve had a lot of media attention,’ recalled Mrs Koenders. ‘We’ve been on local radio in Holland, in the Dutch regional newspapers, in a Dutch magazine about emigration and in The Kaleva (the Oulu area’s newspaper).’
They were also busy planning an event in the first week of October which will allow people in Yli-Ii and surrounding areas such as Oulu to meet them and see what will be happening in Kierikki. The event will also include an ‘information market’ so that other companies can promote themselves. There will be a Snow Safari company as well as companies that offer dancing or relaxation techniques.
‘There will be dancing lessons, a relaxation workshop and . . . for those who reserve it in advance . . . even a special Dutch dinner with traditional Dutch food!’ explained Mrs Koenders. ‘It’s going to be great fun!’
The couple are already taking bookings in their restaurant for Christmas Parties, at which there will be a ‘surprise menu’ and other conferences and gatherings into next year.
Although they’ve only been in Finland for a fortnight the duo are very positive about it as a place to do business and even to just holiday.

‘A Good Feeling about it’

‘I’ve got a good feeling about it,’ beamed Mrs Koenders. ‘They’re a very hospitable people and there are so many advantages to living here.’ Amongst them she listed not having to struggle long distances through traffic jams to get to work and the ‘beautiful nature.’ They also found that nature was much freer than at home.
‘If you want to go into the forest and have barbecue then you can!’ said Mr Koenders. ‘You couldn’t just do that in Holland!’
Unlike in Holland, Mr and Mrs Koenders found that in Finland many of their investments had to be paid for in advance or upfront. However, they also praised the help that they’d received setting up their business from the City of Oulu. ‘Oulu Business Agency have done a lot for us,’ said Mrs Koenders.
Her husband agreed: ‘Whenever you email they answer really quickly. I’ve never seen this kind of support before!’
He’d also found the other self-employed people in Yli-Ii (mainly farmers) to be very helpful with the Yli-Ii authority ‘always ready to give us the information that we need.’
In business terms, she praised the fact that Oulu is a ‘young area’ and there are ‘a lot of opportunities to develop businesses in the area. It is a growing area and there are lots of opportunities to attract people.’
She also emphasised that their hotel was offering something new and exotic, particularly to people in Holland.

‘Not Too Far North!’

‘The north of Finland could be very attractive,’ she suggested. ‘This area is quite near to Lapland but not too far north!’ Also, she felt that the airport was larger with more flights than the one in Rovaniemi, Lapland’s largest city.
Cross-country skiing and Nordic stick walking are becoming popular holiday activities amongst the Dutch the area around the couple’s hotel could certainly offer these in the winter . . . and she hoped language wouldn’t be a problem running the hotel. They could speak Dutch for the Dutch tourists and reasonable English and though they could not yet speak Finnish themselves they had an employee who could . . . and she could also speak English and Swedish.
The couple had already been to the Oulu area a number of times laying the foundations for business prior to their recent move here. They had chosen the hotel because it was the business that they were presented with that appealed to them most and they had backgrounds – between them – in marketing and catering. But they missed some things about Holland already.
‘Of course we miss friends and family,’ said Mrs Koenders. ‘But there’s the internet and email and SKYPE and I hope everyone will come here for Christmas . . . for the snow.’
Mr Koenders couldn’t ‘get used to Finnish bread’ and found it incredibly funny that recently a van turned up at his car-park and two men got out of the back . . . followed by two reindeer. ‘This could never happen in the Netherlands!’ he laughed.
As winter gradually draws in, the couple are busily launching their business and trying to promote it in various European countries.
‘We can offer peace and quiet, we’re not far from Lapland, there’s beautiful views of the forest and the lake . . . there is all kinds of wildlife here . . . squirrels, herons, woodpeckers . . . if you’re passing by we’re very flexible as we’re open 24 hours . . . you can rest and relax and enjoy the beautiful nature!’