The financial year 2021–2022 was very good for us: we made a record turnover after the challenging COVID-19 years. At the same time, we also increased the market share of our hotels.
In December 2021, we opened Finland's first arena hotel in Tampere at the new Nokia Arena. The Lapland Hotels Arena hotel has received excellent feedback and a lot of visibility due to various events and international interest. The Arena View rooms and the Laawu Rooftop Terrace & Sauna served fun and unique experiences and feelings to the competition tourists during the spring Ice Hockey World Championships hype. The renovation of our city hotel located on Yliopistonkatu in Tampere also progressed during the spring: we completed half of the hotel's bathroom renovations and partially opened the hotel for use. The rest of the bathrooms will be renovated by early 2023.
In the autumn of 2021, when the COVID-19 situation accelerated again, the popularity of our Staycation vacations reached record levels. We sold more hometown hotel vacations in Lapland Hotels' city hotels (Oulu, Kuopio, Tampere, Helsinki) than ever before. During the autumn season, sales of Staycation packages in city hotels increased by a total of approximately 30 per cent compared to the same period last year. The greatest change took place in the Lapland Hotels Bulevardi in Helsinki, where the growth was almost 70 per cent.
The financial year also brought a lot of happy news: our group and our employees received several recognitions and awards during the year. In autumn 2021, the breakfast of our city hotels received an honorable mention in the national Hungry for Finland food tourism contest. We received the honorable mention for our distinctive breakfast concept and breakfast products as well as for presenting and bringing Lapland's food culture to the cities.
In the spring, Otto Hietamies working in Kultá Kitchen & Bar of Lapland Hotels Bulevardi won the Finnish championship of young chefs in the competition of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs organisation. He will represent Finland in the international Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition 2022 in Mexico in October. Kultá Kitchen & Bar was also featured in the Restaurant Manager of the Year competition, when Riikka Tenhunen represented Lapland Hotels in the high-level final. Sky Kitchen & View Rovaniemi was chosen as among the 50th best restaurants in a vote by industry professionals.
Our entire Lapland Hotels chain was awarded the Domestic Tourism Company of the Year 2022 recognition in the spring. The unanimous jury felt that we have truly brought a piece of the North to the rest of Finland. The recognition is awarded annually to a domestic tourism business that has succeeded with its concept or shows prerequisites for success and has created something new or significantly renewed itself.
