EP207 | 🎅🏻全年都是聖誕節，是祝福還是負擔？

李老師陪你探索英文世界 Exploring English with Ms. Lee

As a kid, my favorite holiday was Christmas. I’m sure it is still most kids’ favorite holiday today. You wake up on Christmas morning full of happiness and hope for what Santa might bring you this year. Imagine what you might feel like if you are literally（真正地，名副其實地） the resident（居民） of Ravaniemi, Finland, also known as Santa’s hometown. It might be a dream come true for kids, but not for every resident living there. During the tourist season, you can barely（幾乎不） move around in a supermarket because it is always packed（擠滿的） with tourists. In 2024, the city had 1.5 million overnight stay tourists, but it only has 60,000 permanent（永久的） residents. The Christmas season stretches（延伸） from October to the end of March. That is a long time to co-inhabit（共同居住） the town with tourists.
How did this town on the edge of the Arctic Circle become known as Santa’s hometown? Well, at the end of World War II, before retreating（撤退） from Ravaniemi, the defeated German soldiers decided to burn the entire town down. After the war, Finland hired a renowned（著名的） Finnish architect to redesign the town, and he decided to design it in the shape of a reindeer head. But it took a while for Santa to make his entrance. It would require another marketing stroke of genius（絕妙點子） to make that happen. In 1984, a Soviet missile accidentally landed in a frozen lake a few hours’ drive outside the town. The town’s tourism department had an idea of sending a man dressed in Santa Claus suit there, along with hundreds of international journalists and officials searching for the missing missile pieces. Then in 1985, Santa Claus Village officially opened to the world. It had a very slow start, first only attracting Finns. But after tour operators installed all kinds of facilities that were not indigenous（本地的） or native to the place, like dog sledding, igloos, business took off. Now the village has seven hotels, more than 20 restaurants and too many souvenir（紀念品） shops to count. At least two Santas work in different locations. To be Santa, you have to be able to carry on small talk（寒暄） in 20 languages. To meet and talk to Santa is free, but a photo will cost you 40 euros.
How do locals feel about the tourism boom（繁榮，激增）? It is pretty divisive（造成分歧的）. For one, the tension between short-term renters and permanent residents is increasing. One resident said tourists renting apartments had undermined（削弱） the feeling of community and eroded（侵蝕，逐漸破壞） a sense of safety. Ravaniemi is also a college town with two universities and more than 10,000 students. Students are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable（負擔得起的） housing. But some residents welcome the influx（湧入） of tourists. One said during the peak（高峰的） season, he can get 500 euros a night for his one-bedroom unit, and if he is able to rent out his apartment three nights a month, he will be able to cover his mortgage（房貸） and other expenses（開支） that month. Officials from the tourism bureau say that tourism isn’t bad, but the growth has to be controlled（受到控制的）.
So my question to you is: if this happens to your hometown, how will you feel about the boom?
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