Christmas Market at Gammlia

Thousands visit the Christmas Market at Gammlia, where also the finest museums and cultural attractions of Umeå are located, during the first weekend of December. This year it was held the last weekend. As the tourism master students, we were to do some field assignment in order to investigate the economic impact of this event.

Having prepared the survey, five of us were there on Saturday at 12:00. I was surprised to come across a crowd despite the cold and icy rain. It’s a really popular event. Last year, there were 32,000 visitors. And Umeå has a population of 113,000.

The Survey Team: Mari-Liis (Estonia), Jieru (China), Germain (France), Gireesh (Canada)

Besides the activities like concerts, poetry reading, kids games, horsecart riding and so on; there were some 70 exhibitors who were selling a wide range of products such as handmade souvenirs, Sami handicrafts, clothes, and delicious homemade food. After finishing my survey job, I had my chance to become the visitor myself, and ended day with the purchase of a tasty piece of smoked salmon.

It’s good that our efforts will not only enable us to pass our course but also provide us the opportunity to share our findings with the event organizer, Västerbottens Museum. By the way, the museum, besides organizing such events, consists of many other facilities as well, one of them being my favorite spot in Umeå, the Swedish Ski Museum. I will provide you some photos, videos and insights about my temple in the next entry.

Here are some photos (excuse the bad quality) that I took during the Christmas Market...