Accommodation

The number of hotels corresponds to the number of establishments open to the public at least one day during the reference period.

Beds and rooms correspond to the number of beds and rooms in hotels open to the public.

Utilisation of bed capacity corresponds to the number of guest nights in per cent of the number of available beds, where the number of available beds is the number of beds multiplied by the establishment's number of open days during the reference period.

Utilisation of room capacity corresponds to the number of occupied rooms in per cent of the number of available rooms, where the number of available rooms is the number of rooms multiplied by the establishment's number of open days during the reference period.

The number of camping sites and holiday dwellings correspond to the number of open establishments during the reference period.

The number of rooms and beds represent two different ways of measuring hotel capacity. In theory, hotels with only double rooms can obtain an occupancy rate of 100 per cent, while the bed capacity is 50 per cent only. The utilisation of room and the utilisation of bed capacity may therefore develop differently from one period to another.

Holiday dwellings are self-catering huts/rooms with limited service. The service does not include the making of beds, cleaning of rooms and sanitary equipment. The establishments must be under the same management, be run on a commercial basis and have their own reception.

Unit: Family or party of tourists who shares a hut/room irrespective of number of people in the group.

Unit night: Unit used one night.

Guest night: One person accommodated one night.

Country of residence: A person is considered to be a resident in a country (place) if the person has lived for most of the past year or 12 months in that country (place), or has lived in that country (place) for a shorter period and intends to return within 12 months to live in that country (place).International tourists should be classified according to their country of residence, not according to their citizenship. From a tourism standpoint any person who moves to another country (place) and intends to stay there for more than one year is immediately assimilated with other residents of that country (place). Citizens residing abroad who return to their country of citizenship on a temporary visit are included with non-resident visitors. Citizenship is indicated in the person's passport (or other identification document), while country of residence has to be determined by means of question or inferred e.g. from the person's address.

Seasonal contract: Caravan on seasonal contract means the rent of an area at a fixed price irrespective of use.

The total capacity for a camping site is the total of number of huts and areas for tents/caravans or campers.

Lodging turnover is exclusive of turnover for food, regardless of meals being included in the sales price.

There may be changes in capacity during the year. On the basis of information on bed and room capacity per month, the annual or seasonal capacity is calculated as a monthly average.

County. Municipality by request.

Monthly

Data are reported to Eurostat, the UN and the OECD.

Microdata are stored in Oracle databases and as files in SAS and ASCII format.

The purpose of the statistics is to measure the level and development in the guest nights at Norwegian collective accommodation establishments, which are an important part of the Norwegian tourism industry.

The accommodation statistics for hotels and similar establishments were established in 1950.
The accommodation statistics for camping sites were established in 1968.
The accommodation statistics for holiday dwellings were established in 1998.

Figures for Hostelling International Norway were published for the first time in Statistics Norway's annual publication in 1965 and included in Statistics Norway's monthly figures from July 2002.

The scope of the statistics has been revised several times. Further information is provided in chapter Production - comparability over time and space.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, Innovation Norway (formerly the Norwegian Tourist Board), and trade organisations, research institutes and international organisations such as Eurostat use the statistics.

Knowledge of the tourist traffic to Norway is important for research and for measuring the results of Norwegian marketing efforts abroad, and also form a basis for the Government's backing of tourism as a growth area.

The Division for National Accounts in Statistics Norway is also an important user.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar.

The Division for National Accounts uses the hotel data in their quarterly publishing.

The accommodation statistics are used to check the quality of the Travel- and Holiday Survey and the Structural Business Statistics for Hotels and Restaurants.

The accommodation statistics are also used for estimates in the quarterly turnover index for transport and tourism.

The Statistics Act of 1989, §§2-2 and 2-3

REGULATION (EU) No 692/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 July 2011 concerning European statistics on tourism and repealing Council Directive 95/57/EC

The statistics cover all hotels and similar establishments, camping sites with a capacity of  at least at least 30 units, holiday dwellings with a capacity of at least 10 bedplaces, and all youth hostels.

Data reported directly from the establishment's booking systems and Internet questionnaire.

Total count for establishments that are larger than the threshold set out in Chapter Production - population. Data for minor establishments - above cut off - are anyway calculated.

The questionnaires are sent out at the end of the month M. The response deadline is the 10th of the month M+1.

 All questionnaires and all data reported electronically are subject to logic and mathematical checks.

For non-respondents, missing values are calculated based on data from similar establishments in same stratum.

There is a high statistical correlation between the share of business guest nights and the price the hotel obtains in the market. This statistical correlation is used to calculate room revenue and other lodging revenue for establishments that have not submitted information on turnover.

About 5 per cent of the establishments do not respond. For these establishments number of guest nights and sales are calculated. These calculations are based on the assumption that non-respondents have same utility of capacity for beds and rooms as the respondents within same strata (hotel and region. With knowledge about capacity for all non-respondents, the number of guest night can be calculated.

Figures are published in original forms. Some figurs for hotells are seasonally adjusted by using X12ARIMA, http://www.ssb.no/maanedshefte/del1/kifig46n.shtml

The accommodation statistics is released according to the directions given in the Statistics Act, section 2-6:

Information collected in accordance with any prescribed obligation to provide information, shall under no circumstances be published in such a way that it may be traced back to the supplier of any data or to any other identifiable individual to the detriment of the person concerned, or to the unreasonable detriment of the latter if the supplier of the data or the individual is an undertaking of the kind mentioned in § 5-1 third paragraph[1] or a public organisation.

The hotel statistics were established in 1950. Due to several changes in the scope of the statistics, these are not comparable for the whole period. Except for two extensions (1990 and 1995), when more nationalities were included in the statistics, the hotel statistics are fully comparable from 1985. In connection with the revision of the Hotel Act in 1984, the approval system was removed and this resulted in an increase in the number of establishments. The statistical gap from 1984 to 1985 is documented in "Norsk Hotellnæring 1950 - 1990. Sosiale og økonomiske studier 77, Statistisk sentralbyrå" (Norwegian only).

The camping statistics were established in 1968 and were revised in 1988, 1996 and 1998.
In 1988, a register with information on opening hours and capacity was established, enabling estimates for non-respondents.

In 1996, more nationalities were included, in accordance with Council Directive 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.

In 1998, the cover was extended to include overnight stays in caravans on seasonal contracts. The camping statistics were also extended to include the winter and autumn season and to include consecutive monthly publication. The camping statistics are therefore comparable from 1998.

The holiday dwelling statistics were established in 1998 and can be compared from 1998 to 2002. In 2002, some establishments in the hotel statistics were reclassified as holiday dwellings. As a result the statistics are not comparable from 2002 to 2003.

The holiday dwellings and the camping sites reported their statistics in unit nights (see Chapter Production - poulation). Unit nights were however converted to number of guest nights based on empirical studies, indicating that an average family/travel company sharing a hut consists of three people.Since January 2013, the holiday dwellings and campsites have been asked to report guest nights. However, some camping sites have continued to report unit days. A major revision and correction of figures from such camping sites was carried out in June 2014. This affects comparability with previous periods to a degree, but in the long term will lead to improved guest night figures for camping sites.

From 2004, some larger holiday dwellings with larger huts report number of guest nights instead. These holiday dwellings accommodate families/travel companies of more than three people. This has affected the comparability from 2003 to 2004.

From January 2013 the prodction of the statistics are severly changed. New cut off based on international regulations (cf. Poulation above). It is guest nights that are collected (not unit nights) and establishments ard identified in Business Register and some other business surveys. These have lead to more establishments in the population. Some establishments have changed NACE. All together the changes makes data for camping and holiday dwellings NOT comparable with data from 2012 and before. Data for hotels are comparable, but use data on minor regional area, municipalities, with careness.

Figures for Svalbard have in 2013 been included in the ordinary tourism statistics twice. First Svalbard was include from March 2013.  In July 2013 figures for Svalbardt were included for January and February in the Statistics Bank. Thes might lead to inconsistency between data for Norway in the bank, and data for Norway in the articles for January - May 2013.

In general, errors can occur both when the questionnaire is being completed (respondents submit incorrect information) and during the registration of questionnaires (optical reading).

Non-response: By the date the questionnaires are due back the response rate is about 60 per cent. After reminders have been sent out the response increases to 90-95 per cent. Total and partial non-response are calculated automatically. Calculation or imputation of values for no-response establishments is based on other esteblishments' data in the same stratum. Stratum is given by county and accommodation capacity. By imputation of values, there may be significantly uncertainty which again may have major impact on data at smaller regional areas.

Accommodation statistics updated its population regularly against Business Register since January 2013. New establishments, establishments that had changed their major activities was either added to or removed from the population. There may be delay as well as errors and omissions in this process, which can reduce comparability of data over time.

Guest nights for camping sites and holiday dwellings are in most cases based on assessments. Errors and omissions in reporting in one period uncovered in editing in later periods can reduce data  comparability, especially  for smaller regional areas. Such errors may in some cases be enlarged through calculation of non-responses.

Not relevant