New figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were around 6.7 million Notice the difference between “guest nights” and “guest”. One guest may have several guest nights. at The numbers refer to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites, and youth hostels. in July this year. This is an increase of 0.9 percent since July last year.

There were 4.5 million Norwegian guest nights in July, a fall of 26 percent compared with July last year. Numbers from the travel survey show that the number of Norwegians traveling abroad in the 2nd quarter this year is back to the levels before the pandemic.

– There was no repeat of the last two years’ high numbers of Norwegian guest nights, but the level is still higher than before the pandemic. It seems that Norwegians are choosing to travel abroad again now that travel restrictions are lifted, says Higher Executive Officer Boyd Oyier in SSB.

After two years of travel restrictions and markedly fewer foreign guests many have now returned. This is especially true for German, Dutch and Swedish guests. Guests from these countries accounted for approximately half the 2.2 million foreign guest nights in July this year.

Corrected for The number of overnight stays varies during the year and the pattern is repeated every year. Seasonal adjustment is used to remove what we call seasonal variations, such as public holidays from monthly time series. The adjustment removes the effects of these fluctuations, giving a clearer picture of the time series. the number of guest nights at hotels, camping sites and holiday dwellings fell by 1.1 percent from the previous month. Norwegian guest nights fell by 3.9 percent, while foreign guest nights increased by 0.9 percent. Seasonally adjusted Norwegian guest nights are now at the same level as before the pandemic, while foreign guest nights are lagging behind.

Figure 1. Seasonally adjusted guest nights. Norwegian and foreign. January 2019- July 2022

More guest nights at hotels than last year

There were 3.3 million guest nights at hotels in July. This is an increase of 8.2 percent compared to July last year, and with that the second-best July recorded in this statistics history.

The increase in hotel guest nights comes on the back of a fivefold increase in the number of foreign guest nights. Foreign guest nights increased in every county compared with July last year and increased the most in Vestland and Oslo.

Norwegian guest nights at hotels fell by 20 percent, with a decrease in every county except Viken and Oslo. The largest contributors to the decline were Vestland and Innlandet.

Figure 2. Percentage change in hotel guest nights by county. July 2021 – July 2022
Source: Accomodation, Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Mapping Authority.

In accordance with definitions from Eurostat, refugees should be excluded from tourism statistics and not be considered as guests in the context of tourism statistics when they stay at a tourist accommodation establishment. Refugees from Ukraine cannot be assigned by purpose as holiday, occupation or course, conference. It was not possible to extract all refugees guest nights and some stays are included in the statistics. For accommodation establishments that have more than 25 guest nights from Ukraine during the month, the guest nights have been removed from the statistic. Establishments that are exclusively hosting refugees are not included in the statistics.

Seasonally adjusted figures for accommodation statistics were first introduced with the publication of the January 2022 statistics. Monthly time series are often characterized by considerable seasonal variations, which might complicate their interpretation. Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of these fluctuations, giving a clearer picture of the time series