Edward Dutton interviews Dimcho Petrov of Oulu’s White Nights Travel

‘Tourism is my life!’ smiles Bulgarian expat Dimcho Petrov as he recalls how he had wanted to work in the tourism industry ever since he was a child playing in the street and tourists would asking him directions.
All these years later he has established ‘White Nights Travel’ in Oulu organising all kinds of exciting Finnish tours for tourists from all over the world.
Dimcho’s company – which has two partners one of whom is a Finn – has been built out of contacts that Dimcho already developed when running guided bus excursions to St Petersburg and various parts of Finland. He was also able to network when he studied tourism at one of Oulu’s Professional Schools.

Reindeer Safari

‘We arrange everything through tour operators,’ Dimcho told me. ‘People contact them and then they contact us and we make all the arrangements for their tour – booking all the hotels and excursions and everything else.’
White Nights organises different tours for different seasons, says Dimcho. ‘We have a New Year Package where you go to Ruka and Kuusamo in Lapland. You stay in log cabins and there’s a full range of adventures on offer – snowmobile, reindeer safari, huskie riding . . .’
The packages on offer range in length from four days to a week and will soon be able to be booked through the company’s website.
‘We’re updating it at the moment,’ Dimcho tells me. In the summer months, the company offers packages including more ‘adventure sports’ and ‘hikes’ in Finland’s extensive forests and lakes.’

Tourists in Bulgaria

Originally from the Black Sea are of Bulgaria, Dimcho recalls how he had always wanted to work in tourism.
‘In our town there were so many tourists!’ After leaving school Dimcho attended a ‘Sports School’ in Bulgaria where he learnt about adventure such as ‘para-sailing’ and ‘jet-skiing.’
He then spent a few years working in hotels in Bulgaria where he was able to hone his skills with tourists and also learn English which he hadn’t really learnt at school. He then set up a tourist business in Bulgaria with quite a few employees but it was in Bulgaria that he met his future Finnish wife, who was from near Oulu, and after a long distance relationship he moved here in 1999.
‘15th June 1999!’ he emphasises, remembering the precise date when he left his home country.
At first, Dimcho worked in a restaurant in Oulu as he improved his Finnish and it was through getting a job as a coach driver – on coach tours – that he was able to get back into his beloved tourism.
‘I was looking for a way to be near tourism and I got this job as a coach driver,’ he recalled. ‘I was very lucky!’

‘A New Idea’

Through this he was able to make contacts, study more about tourism and, just recently, set-up White Nights Travel.
Much as he enjoys living in Oulu, Dimcho has certainly found it to be very different from his native Bulgaria.
‘The Finnish mentality is very different!’ he smiles. ‘When you come here you should spend the first five years not only studying the language but also the mentality!’
As a tour organiser he’d found that this ‘Finnish mentality’ at least made his work more interesting. He’d organised New Year Tours for people from all over Europe but found that, ‘The Finns want to celebrate New Year much, much more than people from other countries!’ At first he’d found it quite difficult to understand what kind of tourist package was right for ‘the Finns’ but after almost a decade in Finland he thinks he’s beginning to understand.
At first he also couldn’t understand the Finnish ‘lack of talking.’ ‘I used to think, “Why don’t they talk much?”’ he reminisces. ‘But now I think I just understand it!’
Dimcho is also enthusiastic about Oulu’s tourist future. ‘Oulu’s a good place for tourism!’ he tells me.
‘But at the moment tourism is too new an idea for a lot of people here . . . even those working in the tourism industry here.’

‘Loads to offer tourists’

Dimcho insists that Oulu is in a perfect position to attract tourists. ‘It’s in the middle of Finland, it’s not far from Lapland, it’s on the Finnish coast and there are beautiful places along there in the summer.’
‘It has loads to offer to tourists and already there are these business congresses happening in Oulu.’
Dimcho is convinced that the City of Oulu – and the Finnish Government – should invest in tourism even more.
‘Tourism is almost the biggest industry in the world now!’ he exclaims. ‘It can earn countries so much more than other industries!’
So used is Dimcho to living in Oulu now that he doesn’t really miss Bulgaria that much. In fact he feels a little bit like a tourist when he goes back there.
‘It takes about three or four days to get used to it now when I go back!’ he laughs.
‘I’m a big boy. The world is not so big! I can always get a plane!’ he comments stoically, but then he remembers one thing that he really does miss about home. ‘It’s funny,’ he says, ‘but I really miss the sound of crickets!’
Dimcho and his Finnish wife split up but he’s staying in Oulu with his tourism business and his new wife who is from Russia. He also has high hopes for the future of tourism in Oulu.
‘It may not be the main industry now but I predict that in ten or fifteen years time it will be!’