In May 2021, The Alvar Aalto Route – 20th Century Architecture and Design consisting of Alvar Aalto’s architectural sites received major international recognition when it was granted “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe” certification. This first Europe Cultural Route recognition to be received in Finland will be celebrated in Jyväskylä on 17.11.2021 with all those involved in the collaboration on the Route present. Welcoming speeches will be given at the gathering by Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes and Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Stefano Dominioni and Director Minna Karvonen, representing the Ministry of Education and Culture, which funded the project.

Alvar Aalto Route – 20th Century Architecture and Design Cultural Route and the online service built around it have been developed in collaboration with Finnish and international Aalto sites and tourism operators since 2017. The Cultural Route spans more than 60 architectural sites in 27 cities in five different countries – Finland, Germany, Estonia, Italy and France. The online service has been produced in Finnish, English, Russian, Japanese and German.

“The project has brought with it new, innovative ideas for developing tourism products and services, and offered operators valuable support for networking. With the increased awareness of Alvar Aalto’s architecture and the greater visibility of services offered to travellers, visitor numbers at several sites have also grown gratifyingly,” says Noora Kiili of the Alvar Aalto Foundation, who has been in charge of producing the cultural route operation right from the start.

During 2022, the running of the Alvar Aalto Route Cultural Route will be transferred to the Cultural Route on Aalto´s Architecture and Design Heritage (Aallon arkkitehtuuri- ja muotoiluperinnön matkailureitti ry.) association. “The foundations of the route created around the Aaltos’ cultural heritage over the last four years have now been built successfully built. The development of the Cultural Route will continue in the future in a positive spirit and in close collaboration with Finnish and foreign travel operators,” says the Chair of the association, Heli Leinonkoski.

The aim of the tourist-route association is to advance tourism to sites designed by Alvar Aalto. All operators who want to promote this aim and either own Aalto sites or work on Aalto sites, for instance, as service providers, are welcome to join the association.

About the Alvar Aalto Route online service
• More than 60 designs by Alvar Aalto’s architect’s office, sites open to tourists
• 28 tours, sold by 10 travel agencies
• 27 Alvar Aalto Cities
• More than 100 service providers
• 5 language versions (Finnish, English, Russian, Japanese and German)
• More than 600 photographs
• Launched in May 2018

Visitor data:
• Approx. 73,000 visitors and more than 150,000 page views/year
• By user’s browser language: 48% Finnish, 17% English, 11% Japanese, 12% Russian, 12% other languages
• By country of origin: 57% Finland, 11.6% Russia, 11% Japan, 5% USA, 3% Germany 1.8% Italy, 10.6% other
• Traffic 70% from searches, 15% direct and 12% via other websites

Further information:
Alvar Aalto Route – 20th Century Architecture and Design Cultural Route online service

Press release about certification of Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe

Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe on the Ministry of Education and Culture’s website

Inquiries:
NOORA KIILI
Producer, Alvar Aalto Route Cultural Route Association
Alvar Aalto Fouhdation
noora.kiili@alvaraalto.fi
+358 44 976 7810

HELI LEINONKOSKI
President of the Cultural Route on Aalto´s Architecture and Design Heritage
Administrative Director, City of Jyväskylä
heli.leinonkoski@jyvaskyla.fi
+358 50 365 4287

TOMMI LINDH
CEO, Alvar Aalto Foundation
tommi.lindh@alvaraalto.fi
+358 44 562 1625

The certificate of the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe was presented on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Culture to Heli Leinonkoski by the Project Manager of the Finnish Heritage Agency, Emma Harju.