Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock ) had a record number of visitors in July. 105,700 tourists hiked up to the mountain plateau in Rogaland.
There were 12,545 more visitors than the year before, when only 93,155 went to the top, Stavanger Aftenblad writes.
The number of visitor figures are from the new counting machines at Rogaland’s biggest tourist attraction.
CEO Helge Kjellevold of the Preikestolen Foundation believes the visit record is due to Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) visiting the mountain plateau on July 23 this year.
“It is an important gesture that the prime minister made the trip. Many took selfies with her. This indicates that there were some Norwegians on the trail and shows that Preikestolen is not just for tourists. We must not get to a place where Norwegians can not get to,” he says.
A total of 5,202 people hiked up to Preikestolen on the same day as the Prime Minister, while this summer’s record was set on July 17 when 5,342 people went up. The daily average was 3,410 visitors on weekdays.
Also in June, records were broken. Then 64,354 tourists hiked the trip, against 45,369 the year before.
The great upturn has meant a lot of work for Norwegian People’s First Aid. At the beginning of July, there had been more rescue operations at Preikestolen than during the whole of last year.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
