More foreigners chose stays in Northern Norway this winter

Summer Norway Packing Lofoten MountainEnjoying the life to the fullest. Admiring the vista from a mountain top in Lofoten. Photo: Pixabay.com

In one year, the three northernmost counties experienced an 11% growth in foreign overnight stays during the winter season.

Almost 2.1 million foreign overnight stays were made in Norway during the first four months of this year according to Statistics Norway (SSB).

This is an increase of 1% over the same period the year before.

If we go back five years in time, the increase is 11%.

Looking at the three northernmost counties alone, they have had a much stronger growth. In the first four months of the year, they registered 330,000 foreign overnight stays, almost a doubling over the past five years. By comparison, Norwegian overnight stays in Nordland, Troms and Finnmark have only increased by 3% during this period.

USA

There were many nationalities that contributed to there being more overnight stays in Northern Norway, but the Americans stand out. The number of overnight stays by US citizens in the first four months of the year had more than quadrupled over the past five years.

Troms had received almost eight times more US overnight stays from 2015 to 2019. It is also worth noting a strong growth for German stays in Troms.

Nordland received the most foreign overnight stays from Germany and Sweden, while in the past five years, Italians and French people have had the largest increase in the number of overnight stays. In Finnmark, overnight stays from Germany and China have contributed most to the increase in foreign overnight stays in the past five years.

Increase in Svalbard

Hotel accommodations in Svalbard increased by 14% measured against the same period in 2018. This is part of a longer trend of increasing hotel accommodations in Svalbard, also outside the traditional tourist season.

Among the almost 8,000 more overnight stays in Svalbard, measured against the same four-month period last year, the increase was distributed almost equally between Norwegian and foreign overnight stays.

Since 2015, the increase in foreign overnight stays has almost doubled, especially boosted by guests from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy. The number of overnight stays by Norwegians rose by 16%.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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