My Internship Experience with Visit Lapland
Traveling, content creation, networking, tourism research… These are just a few things that I love, and what I’ve also gotten to do as an intern with Visit Lapland. I’m a third year International Business student at Lapland University of Applied Sciences and internship is one of the most important and exciting parts of our school years. It’s the time when I get to put my knowledge into action, learn different aspects about running a business and create connections for the future. Visit Lapland is an independent promotional platform for the Arctic North, sharing authentic stories and experiences in their blog, website, and social media channels. The mission of Visit Lapland is to promote the local businesses, and aim to protect the nature, culture, and authenticity of Lapland.
My Internship Tasks & Experiences
I started my 6-month internship right during the fall foliage in late September, which is one of the most beautiful seasons in Lapland. My tasks during the practical training included content creation, managing multiple social media channels, blog writing, tourism research and development, trip planning, photography, and so much more. The emphasis in our work is on spreading the word of everything Lapland has to offer, as well as offering help for customers and other companies. I wrote quite many blogs during my internship, which I grew to love so much that I’m finally planning to start my own travel blog, too! Writing blogs and articles requires background research, experiencing the things you’re writing about and often interviewing other business owners, locals, or tourists, as well as content creating in the area or of the things you’re writing about. The content can also be utilised on different platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. In conclusion, my focus was keeping track of what’s happening around Lapland, taking part in events to tell and show them to others through social media, creating content of local experiences through changing seasons to inspire others to travel here, too. Another intern was responsible for developing the website and design related things, but we also had mutual trips and meetings, so got to learn from each others’ fields as well.
Throughout the internship period, I worked mostly remotely, except for content creation trips around Lapland, and occasional team meetings in Rovaniemi. My working hours varied a lot, as some days I was writing blogs, managing social media channels, and other days I was driving to a certain location to create content and take part in events that can last for multiple days. Therefore, flexibility is definitely needed. The online presence management on the company’s webpage, blog and social media takes a big share of the work, since they keep the company running continuously. Creating content for the company’s social media is an ongoing task as well, and it is extremely important to be consistent to stay relevant.
Why Visit Lapland?
There are many reasons why I wanted to work for Visit Lapland, some of them being my love for tourism, social media marketing and content creation. Moreover, during the past years, I have completely fallen in love with Lapland and especially its nature, so I passionately wanted to become a part of a company with a mission such as Visit Lapland’s – protecting its authenticity and helping the local businesses to bloom. Overall, this internship has been a great learning experience for me, and it gave me a huge leap in my own career. I started my application process by sending an email to Visit Lapland after seeing their intern advertisement on LinkedIn. Following from there, I got an interview with the manager of Visit Lapland, which was one of the nicest interviews I’ve ever taken part in. A couple of weeks later, I received a call from the same manager and became a part of Visit Lapland few months later!
If your goal is to become a valuable asset in the company and deliver value to their customers, and you also want to learn more about social media, marketing, content creation and Lapland’s businesses, this could be the place for you. Visit Lapland is currently expanding and undergoing a lot of chances, so if you’re interested in becoming a part of a fun, flexible and growing team in the heart of Rovaniemi, keep your eyes peeled and LinkedIn notifications on!
Good luck & thank you for following my stories for the past 6 months! I’ll surely still pop on Visit Lapland’s platforms every now and then and if you have any questions, you’re always welcome to contact me on Instagram and TikTok @erikakatainen <3
⇐ By Erika Katainen / Visit Lapland ⇒
