August was a good month for Norwegian The numbers refer to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites, and youth hostels.. New figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were 5.5 million guest nights at hotels, camping sites, holiday dwellings and youth hostels. This was a 4.7 per cent increase compared to August last year.
Foreign guest nights drove this increase. There were almost 2.5 million foreign guest nights, a 13 per cent increase compared to August last year.
At the same time, there were almost 3.1 million Norwegian guest nights, a decrease of 1.4 per cent.
– August is the main holiday month for many foreign visitors. Just under half of all guest nights in August came from abroad, says advisor Boyd Oyier at Statistics Norway.
1 in 4 foreign guest nights were German
There were about 2.5 million foreign guest nights at commercial accommodation establishments in August. 80 per cent of these were from European countries. Germany accounted for the largest share with just over 586 000. The Netherlands was second¹ with 237 000 guest nights, followed by Sweden and Italy with 166 000 and 146 000 guest nights, respectively.
– The composition of foreign guest nights varies significantly between summer and winter. In summer, most guest nights are from Germany and the Netherlands, while in the winter they are mainly from Denmark and the United Kingdom. Sweden consistently ranks third in both seasons, says Boyd Oyier.
Guest nights from Asia have gradually picked up after the pandemic. In August, China accounted for most guest nights at about 53 000. This was an increase of 63 per cent compared to the same month the previous year.
¹ In the Statbank, USA appears as the country with the second most foreign overnight stays. Note that guests who book through certain online travel agencies and apps may be registered with USA as the country of residence, even though they actually reside in other countries.