Holiday survey, 2001

The number of overnight stays on holiday increased slightly by 1.5 per cent in the holiday year 2001 (i.e. from November 2000 to October 2001), compared with the previous period. In total the Norwegians in the age group 16-79 went away on holiday a good 52.5 million nights. On average this makes 15.7 nights per person.

In spite of the two additional holidays introduced to most employees in 2001, the length of this year's holiday trips with a minimum of 4 overnight stays went down for people between 25 and 66 years old. The majority of the employees affected by the change in the number of holidays is found in this group. Most significant is the decrease for those between 25 and 44 years old. Here the average number of nights on holiday per year went down by 1.6 nights. In relative terms this is close to 8 per cent less than in the previous year.

Retired people spent three and a half weeks away on holiday

In the age group 67-79 the average number of nights spent on holiday per year grew from 21.5 nights in 2000 to 25.7 nights in 2001. We still find the highest share with no holiday trips in this age group, however we have witnessed a major change in the last years. In 1998 an entire 48 per cent of people between 67 and 79 years old did not make any holiday trips during the year, whereas this share in 2001 is 38 per cent, in other words a reduction of 10 percentage points.

More people on holiday than in many years

The share of people with one or more holiday trips increased by 2 percentage points to 77 per cent from 2000 to 2001. This is the highest share of people with holiday trips since the mid-1980s. The number of holidaymakers went up by about 1.7 per cent to just under 2.6 million people.

The average number of holiday trips among the entire population as well as the holidaymakers remained the same in 2001 as in 2000, i.e. 1.5 and 2.0 holiday trips respectively. This is due to less people making numerous holiday trips than in the previous year.

Home, sweet home

The total number of holiday trips fell by 1.1 per cent to almost 5 million trips, and the number of holiday trips abroad fell by 2 per cent. In contrast to the trend in previous years the decrease in the number of domestic holiday trips is merely noticeable from 2000 to 2001. The number of people with holiday trips in Norway only was reduced by less than 4 per cent to slightly under 900 000 people. On the other hand, the number of people who made holiday trips both in Norway and abroad increased. Hence the total of domestic holidays remained stable.

Norwegians spent almost NOK 33.4 billion on their holiday trips. This is a decrease by a little more than 3 per cent from 2000. Again the reduction was greatest for the holiday trips abroad where the expenditure fell by almost 4.5 per cent to NOK 23.9 billions. On average each Norwegian spent slightly less than NOK 10 000.

Outbound holiday trips remain popular though. An entire 487 000 holiday trips had Spain as their main destination in the holiday year 2001. Among the Nordic countries, apart from Norway, Denmark is the most popular destination.

No significant September 11 effect

The share of people on autumn holiday decreased by 2 percentage points to 21 per cent from 2000 to 2001. However, this is the second highest share of people on autumn holiday recorded in the holiday survey ever. The holiday year 2000 had the highest share of autumn holidaymakers.

The number of outbound holiday trips in September and October 2001 went down by 13 per cent whereas the number of domestic holiday trips fell by 15.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2000. However, over the two-year period 1999-2001 the increase in the number of holiday trips abroad was higher than 8 per cent for these two months.

Tables:

• Table 1 Number of people on holiday by main destination in different population groups. 2001. Number in 1 000
• Table 2 Number of holiday trips by main destination and different criteria. 2001. Number in 1 000
• Table 3 Percentage of people, by number of holiday trips and average number of holiday trips per person in different population groups. 2001
• Table 4 Number of holiday trips by main destination in different population groups. 2001. Number in 1 000
• Table 5 Number of nights spent on holiday, by main destination and average number of nights spent on holiday per person and per trip by different criteria. 2001
• Table 6 Percentage of people on holiday, by season in different population groups. 2001