Labor is concerned about cuts in Norway travel advertising

Norwegian nature.Photo: Norway Today Media.

Cuts in funding leads to less promotion of Norway as a tourist destination. Labor fears that growth in tourism will halt.

A favorable exchange rate combined with new experiences for those visiting Norway, has meant that this year’s summer will be the third consecutive record for tourism, wrote Dagsavisen. Several report a growth of 8 per cent.

– To prevent this from just being a flicker we must strengthen the tourism industry, says Torstein Tvedt Solberg, who sits in Parliament’s Finance Committee for Labor. He believes the government is doing the opposite and giving the industry unstable conditions.

The Ministry of Industry has reduced allocations to Innovation Norway’s tourism strategy. This year, 231.5 million kroner was in the budget for this purpose, more than ten percent less than three years ago.

Innovation Norway’s director of sustainable tourism and food, Audun Pettersen, says the cut has had consequences. The organization no longer has any dedicated people working in Poland with Norwegian tourism, it has cut into consumer campaigns in several key markets, and brochures that before existed in ten languages, are now available in only English.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today