How do you recognize the real Father Christmas? He's the one in the red, of course.
As hundreds of faux Santas across the world lure people to the shops and global corporates like Coca-Cola break open and dust down the Santa brand to speed coins into their tills, the man himself cannot turn a profit.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Santa Park, his official headquarters in Finland's Arctic, has never made an annual net profit and lost 0.5 million euros (US$612,400) last year -- half its turnover -- and drew just 65,000 visitors.
PHOTO: AFP
But 32 year-old Wille Rajala, a local entrepreneur who in September became the park's fourth director in its five years of operations, sees a mass of untapped potential to fast-track it into the black.
"When I saw Santa Park before I was working here, I always felt it was a shame they cannot make this work because clearly there is every possibility to make it work," he said. "We can make the first profit in Christmas 2004."
PHOTO: AFP
Rajala wonders too why there has never been serious talk of listing the 30 percent state-owned company and does not rule out an initial public offering some time in the future.
PHOTO: AFP
"When this business is running properly there will be enough investors to build my dream," he said.
He foresees up to 400,000 visitors coming each year, and on paper, at least, this does not sound like humbug.
Father Christmas is a global draw, with a sled-load of aliases that allow him to moonlight as Jouluvana, Pere Noel, Weihnachtsmann. On Santa Park's opening day, the air was peppered with French, Japanese, English and German voices.
Also, 800km north of Helsinki within the Arctic Circle, Santa Park has little competition for its six months of freezing temperatures and tonnes of snow that provide the authentic Christmas feeling.
Set in a 12,000m2 fallout shelter, the park has an elves' school, children's rides and "Santa's Grotto". Letters simply marked "to Father Christmas" arrive here. It charms adults too.
"We thought we would make our childhood dreams come true," said Michel and Nadine Sterndeback from Hamburg, who do not have kids but came nevertheless. "It was a great moment when we came in and met Father Christmas and had our picture taken."
And yet, Rajala thinks the park is missing the point.
"The ... product has never faced the reality of why people come here," he said. "People come to experience and see real things. Like when you got to the Canary Islands, you want real sand underfoot and to get some sunshine."
A two-million-euro renovation is planned for Santa Park, with Rajala saying the finished product will be more an authentic part of Lapland.
He says too that if people take the time, trouble and expense to make day trips to the park from places like Britain they must be offered more than an all-too-brief meeting with the Big Man. They may also be convinced to stay longer and spend more.
Santa Park has also taken a page from the corporate playbook when it comes to downsizing, moving from 120 full-timers when the park opened in 1998 to just three permanent employees and 20 seasonal staff now.
Taking advantage of the surrounding nature, the park wants to push itself as a part of a "Lapland Safari," included in package deals from tour operators alongside skiing and the Northern Lights in winter or midnight sun trips in summer.
This year, Lapland tourism will be boosted when Levi, some 150km north of Rovaniemi, plays host for the first time to two Alpine ski World Cup races. National carrier Finnair will fly 12,000 Europeans to the region this winter.
"Santa Park is only one place here, and there are so many other wonderful things in Lapland that we must see the big picture," Rajala said.
He says the park's current two-and-a-half to three months a year opening is a drag on potential, and hopes to eventually bring visitors year-round via perennial money makers like conferences, corporate events and concerts.
But all the while the real man at the top plans to stick to what he does best.
"It is not work," Santa said. "[What] is very important is that children smile and see the real Santa Claus."
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