Our sub-goals include ensuring that tourism is recognized as an important future industry and employer, tourism is recognized as an important export industry, and facilitating more effective international marketing of Norwegian destinations. This will be done through joint efforts within the tourism industry to develop Norway as a premier environmentally sustainable destination, better utilisation of Innovation Norway's instruments based on cooperation with the industry, as well as increased visibility for the Norwegian Tourism Association through targeted messaging in prioritized channels. We wish to set the tone for the tourism industry, and bring players together to strengthen our collective power.
Norwegian Tourism Partners will not compete against public funding agencies, regional and destination companies with regard to profiling, branding and operational marketing tasks. We will not operate as an employer organization.
The members of Norwegian Tourism Partners represent approximately 90 percent of international tourism marketing, and consist of the 17 largest tourism groups, destination and regional companies in Norway. Our members have 39,000 employees across the country, and 145,000 employees in Norway and internationally. Our member companies represent the entire breadth of the Norwegian tourism industry and represent the industries of accommodation, catering, transport (air, sea and land), leisure activities and experiences, promotional companies, and regional and destination companies.
Norwegian Tourism Partners is organized as an association, with members' meetings as the decision-making body and the Board as the administrative body. The highest authority is the Annual General Meeting. 7 board meetings and 4 member meetings were held in 2024.
Tourism in Norway
Tourism is an important contributor to maintaining settlement, local value creation, and an industry that creates jobs throughout the country, with a significant local tax effect and the integration of workers from different ethnic and social backgrounds.
Traditionally, tourism has not been an integral part of the government's business and export policy to any great extent, and the framework conditions and public instruments are not sufficiently well adapted to the structure of the tourism industry. This is a low-margin industry that operates in a country with high prices and costs, and which competes in an international market.
Profitability is an important factor in the tourism industry. While some regions and destinations enjoy a high number of visitors, other destinations and tourism products experience low occupancy and small margins.
The tourism industry is labour-intensive and employed 182,900 full-time equivalents (FTE) in 2019 according to Statistics Norway's satellite accounts. This represents 7.4 percent of the total number of FTEs. Total tourism spend in Norway was NOK 194.3 billion in 2019, of which NOK 59.4 billion came from foreign visitors. If we add the ripple effects of tourism, we estimate these to be at approximately the same level as total tourism consumption, and in terms of FTEs.
The Covid pandemic caused a significant decrease in travel activities. According to Statistics Norway, this led to total tourist spend reduction in 2021 to NOK 147.821 billion, and the number of FTEs in the travel industry was reduced to 162,000.
The figures from Statistics Norway are not ready for 2024, but most tourism businesses are now back to at least the 2019 level in terms of both turnover and number of employees. Although access to skilled labour has been a challenge.
According to NHO Reiseliv [the Norwegian Hospitality Association], employees in the tourism industry contribute about NOK 20 billion in total personal income tax, employer's national insurance and social security contributions
Foreign and domestic tourism in Norway in 2024
Most tourism companies have seen a good influx of Norwegian and foreign visitors since Norway reopened after the Covid pandemic in 2022.
Figures from Statistics Norway show that there were 38.6 million overnight stays in commercial accommodation in 2024. According to Statistics Norway, this is the best ever year for Norwegian accommodation businesses, with an increase of 4.2 percent compared to 2023. There were 26.2 million Norwegian overnight stays, which is an increase of 1 percent from 2023. There were also 12.4 million foreign overnight stays, which is the highest number of foreign overnight stays ever recorded. This was an increase of 12 percent compared to 2023.
In 2024, almost 80 percent of foreign overnight stays were by European nationals. By far the most were from Germany, with 2.4 million overnight stays (5%). This is followed by Sweden with 1.2 million overnight stays (12%), the Netherlands with 912,000 (-11%), Denmark with 861,000 (4%), the United Kingdom with 777,000 overnight stays (15%) and France with 551,000 overnight stays (10%).
There were 1.3 million commercial overnight stays recorded from the United States in 2024, an increase of 19 percent from 2023. The United States is thus the largest non-European market and the second largest foreign market after Germany.
There were 933,000 overnight stays recorded from Asia in 2024. This is an increase of 48 percent compared to 2023. China contributed the most to this increase with 220,000 overnight stays, which was a full 143 percent more than in 2023. However, it is worth noting that the number of overnight stays from Asia has not returned to the same level as before the pandemic.
While Oslo (6%), Vestland (6%), Akershus (8%), Nordland (15%) and Troms (15%) show very good accommodation and sales figures in 2024, the figures for Agder (-5%), Vestfold (-9%), Østfold (-4%) and Buskerud (-2%) show weaker trends.
Although most foreign overnight stays are in the summer months, we are also seeing strong growth in overnight stays in the winter months of 2024. There were 3.7 million overnight stays in January, February, March, October, November and December of 2024, which is an increase of 27 percent compared to the same period in 2023. The increase in foreign overnight stays during the winter months is largely due to an increase in skiing holidays and northern lights tourism to Northern Norway. The currency situation and more direct air routes have been important factors in this increase.
In the summer period of the year, there were 8.7 million foreign overnight stays in Norway, which is an increase of 5.9 percent on 2023.
The number of overnight stays in Norwegian commercial accommodation establishments increased by 1.5 million from 2023 to 2024. Almost all of this growth came from hotels, with an increase of 1.4 million overnight stays, which is an increase of 6 percent compared to 2023. In 2024, 19.1 million overnight hotel stays were recorded by Norwegians (2%) and 7.6 million overnight hotel stays by foreign nationals (14%).
Most counties saw more overnight hotel stays in 2024 than in 2023. The largest percentage growth was in Nordland (21%), Troms (14%) and Svalbard. Vestfold (-11%), Østfold (-2%), Innlandet (-1%) and Buskerud (-1%) had fewer overnight hotel stays compared to 2023.
There were 8 million overnight stays at campsites in 2024. This is a slight increase of 0.4 percent from 2023. Norwegians accounted for 5.2 million overnight stays, a decrease of 1.7 percent, while foreign overnight stays increased by 4.5 percent. After Norway, Germany and the Netherlands are the dominant markets for camping.
There were 3.9 million overnight stays in cabins and hostels. This is an increase of 3 percent on 2023. There were also fewer Norwegian (-5.8%) and more foreign overnight stays (12%).
In addition to the figures from Statistics Norway, there are overnight stays in cabins and holiday apartments that are not recorded as part of Statistics Norway’s official monthly visitor -stay statistics. The same applies to Airbnb.
A total of 51.4 million air passengers travelled through Avinor's airports in 2024, an increase of 4.8 percent compared to 2023. International traffic is driving passenger growth. In 2024, this accounted for 43 percent of passenger traffic, up from 41 percent in 2023. Passenger growth in 2024 was 8.9 percent for international traffic and 1.9 percent for domestic traffic compared to the previous year. Occupancy rate was a record high of 73.1 percent in 2024, divided between 76.9 percent abroad and 70.5 percent domestically.
In 2024, international ferries enjoyed an increase compared to 2023, both in foreign traffic to Norway and Norwegian traffic abroad.
Forecasts from the Norwegian Railway Directorate show that more train journeys have never been made than in 2024. According to forecasts, more than 83 million trips were made in 2024. That's five million more trips than the previous year. There were also four million more journeys than the previous record from 2019, when there were just under 80 million train journeys nationally.
The Norwegian alpine industry can look back on a new historic record winter in 2023/24. Ski lift ticket sales increased by 9.2% compared to the previous season, and total lift ticket sales for the winter season totalled NOK 1.95 billion.
Norwegians' travels in Norway and abroad
Norwegians are travelling more and more. According to Statistics Norway's Travel Survey, we made 28.9 million trips in 2022, and this increased to 30.3 million in 2023. New figures from Statistics Norway show that this number rose further in 2024 to 32.4 million trips, which is an increase of 6.9 percent on 2023.
In 2024, Norwegians took 24 million trips within their own country, which is 1.3 million more than in 2023. This was the highest number of Norwegian trips recorded for a single year. Before the pandemic, around 65 percent of all trips were domestic. Since the pandemic, this has increased to 75 percent.
In the years before the pandemic, between 14 and 17 percent of all Norwegians stated that they exclusively travelled within Norway. Since the pandemic, this proportion has increased to 22 percent.
In 2024, we made 8.4 million trips abroad, the second highest number measured for a single year by the travel survey. This was an increase of 780,000 trips or 10 percent on 2023.
Sweden and Spain have been Norwegians' most popular travel destinations for many years. The number of trips to the two countries was approximately the same in 2016 and 2017. During the pandemic, travel to both countries fell sharply, but the recovery has been uneven. The number of trips to Sweden has increased significantly, and we made 2.1 million trips to Sweden in 2024. Trips to Spain have stabilized at the same level as before the pandemic and, in 2024, Norwegians made 1.3 million trips to Spanish destinations.
Moderate growth in Norwegians' consumer spending on travel
Norwegians spent almost NOK 214 billion on travel in 2024, divided between 117 billion for domestic travel and 97 billion for international travel – an increase of 4.3 and 1.9 percent respectively on 2023. It is worth noting that travel expenses did not increase at the same rate as travel activity. While the number of trips increased by 6.9 percent from 2023 to 2024, the growth in consumer spending was 3.2 percent.
A possible explanation could be a shift towards shorter and less expensive holidays. From 2023 to 2024, the number of short holiday trips increased by 14 percent, while the growth of long holiday trips was more moderate at 1.6 percent. The increase in shorter vacation trips may indicate that more people have tighter vacation budgets. Instead of skipping travel altogether, it seems that many people are choosing to shorten their vacations.
Fewer Norwegian business trips
Of the 32.4 million trips that Norwegians took in 2024, 5.4 million were business trips. This is a decrease of 3.1 percent from the record year of 2023, but still higher than the general level before the pandemic. A total of 4.2 million business trips were made within Sweden, a decrease of 5.2 percent on the previous year. At the same time, we went on 1.2 million business trips abroad, which was an increase of 6.2 percent.
Trends after the pandemic
According to Avinor, the number of people travelling by air in 2024 is close to the 2019 level. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of passengers, but a decrease in the number of aircraft flights. Norwegian airports now see fewer business travellers, as the number of Norwegian travellers is levelling off while the number of international travellers is growing.
In 2024, international ferries saw a 20 percent increase in the number of foreign passengers compared to 2019, while Norwegians travelling out of Norway are 10 percent down on 2019.
The 38.6 million overnight stays in commercial accommodations in 2024 is now 10 percent above the record year of 2019, divided between 7 percent from Norway and 16 percent from abroad.
The number of foreign commercial overnight stays has increased from 10.7 million in 2019 to 12.4 million in 2024. In addition, foreign overnight stays via Norwegian holiday home intermediaries have grown from 768,000 in 2019 to just under 1.4 million in 2024. This represents a total growth of 2.3 million foreign overnight stays recorded by Statistics Norway.
The increase has been seen particularly in the holiday and leisure market, while international meetings and congresses are still down on 2019 levels, and the same applies to the business trips of Norwegian nationals.
While camping, RVs, and cabin villages have led the growth since the pandemic, there has i 2024 been a greater increase in hotel visits, both in volume and percentage.
Of the foreign markets, the United States has seen the largest percentage increase for the period 2019 to 2024, with an increase of 27 percent. Although we see a good increase from China compared to 2023, travel activities from Asia are still down on 2019 levels. Commercial overnight stays from China are 53 percent down on 2019. This is partly because it took longer for societies to normalise after the pandemic and there are fewer air routes to Europe as a result of reduced demand, and the fact that Western airlines cannot fly over Russian territory, making flights both longer and more expensive.
According to Innovation Norway, Norway's competitiveness has improved since 2019, when the competitiveness index stood at 114. By 2024, this had increased to 133, which is a growth of 17 percent. This is largely due to increased efficiency of relevant companies and a low NOK exchange rate.
According to Statistics Norway, the average room rate in Norwegian hotels was NOK 1,377 in 2024, with an occupancy rate of 56% and RevPar of NOK 772. This is an increase on both 2023 and 2019, but RevPar shows that there are now larger disparities between the largest cities than before the pandemic. RevPar is also increasing significantly more in the largest Norwegian cities than in Swedish cities.
Although volume and room rates have increased since the record year of 2019, this has not translated into higher operating margins. It is therefore important to point out that many accommodation and catering businesses are struggling. Even though the booking figures are generally good, the cost level and framework conditions make it difficult for many tourism businesses.
Future prospects for tourism
The expectations for 2025 and 2026 are optimistic. People will still travel on vacation, but uncertainty factors such as the economy, extreme weather, and the geopolitical situation can affect both bookings and consumption.
National and international forecasts indicate that growth trends up to 2030 will be strongest among the local population and foreign holiday and leisure tourists, measured against 2019 levels. According to Menon Economics, the tourism industry's total revenue is expected to grow by 45 percent by 2030, with the strongest growth in activities and culture, followed by catering services. The number of employees in the industry as a whole will likely remain stable over the next 8 years, as a result of productivity growth and labour shortages. According to Menon, exports are expected to grow by 67 percent from 2019 levels to 2030, which is slightly above the Government's goal for national export growth.
As a travel destination, Norway increasingly satisfies many of the international travel trends. According to Skift Research and Unpack ´25, tourists are making increasingly stringent climate and environmental demands. Tourists prefer longer stays and spectacular outdoor experiences such as the northern lights and midnight sun. A larger proportion of travellers are interested in quiet and peaceful nature, but with the option of excursions to popular travel destinations, while Europeans focus more on local markets and nature-based activities.
All these trends focus on nature, making it particularly important to safeguard nature in terms of protection, biodiversity and sensible use of public access rights. We must avoid encroachment and the degradation of nature, and we must avoid an influx of mass tourism that will have a negative impact on the residents of the destinations. Sustainable destination development, active destination management and visitor management will become increasingly important, and offer an even stronger competitive advantage in the years ahead.
Growth in the tourism industry must be driven by more financially viable and profitable visitors. To succeed in this, we must improve our competitiveness through competitive framework conditions and increased efforts on sustainable development, infrastructure and international marketing.
The most important markets for Norwegian destinations will continue to be nearby markets such as Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We're also seeing a positive trend from France, and we're expecting more travellers from Asia, especially from China.
The exchange rate between NOK and the currencies in our most important markets will be of great importance. We will capitalise on a weak NOK as this will make it cheaper for foreign nationals to visit Norway, while making it more expensive for Norwegians to travel abroad.
Norwegian Tourism Partners' activities in 2024
The Norwegian Tourist Board is working to promote sustainability as a competitive advantage for the tourism industry, to strengthen the international marketing of Norway as a travel destination, and to provide the tourism industry with competitive framework conditions.
Based on an adapted strategy and action plan from 2022/23, Norwegian Tourism Partners has been actively working with the Norwegian Parliament and government throughout 2024. We have played an active role in the shaping of input meetings, consultation briefings and participation in hearings organised by the Norwegian Parliament and various ministries. For example, in relation to the national budget for 2025 and other legislative proposals that will affect the tourism industry. These include consultation briefings for the ‘Visitor Contribution Act’, ‘the Third Runway at Oslo Airport’ and ‘The Coastal Route Configuration’.
The state budget is important for the tourism industry, which is why we devote resources to this process, be it input and meetings with political leaders and civil servants in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries about next year's state budget, meetings with political parties, hearings in Parliament and following up of the revised national budget. There have been several such meetings in 2024.
This dialogue with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries is particularly important to the organisation, and this work has created a good level of trust between our organisation and the Ministry. The CEO is a member of the Tourism Committee of the Norwegian Federation of Tourism.
As a policy instrument, Innovation Norway is important to tourism. We enjoy a very good dialogue with the management of Innovation Norway. This co-operation is particularly aimed at following up points in the tourism strategy and to ensuring closer collaboration between Innovation Norway and the tourism industry in relation to international marketing. The CEO is represented on Innovation Norway's strategic council for tourism initiatives.
We enjoy good contact with key and influential politicians, with both those in government and the opposition. As part of this dialogue, we have actively collaborated on the political parties' programme for the period 2025-2029.
In collaboration with NHO Reiseliv, NHO Luftfart, Virke and Innovation Norway, we held an event during Arendal Week 2024, which welcomed over 120 participants from the government, political parties, various organizations, and the tourism industry. In addition to this event, the CEO participated in 7 different debates during Arendal Week.
Norwegian Tourism Partners enjoys good cooperation and has, in several contexts, acted as an intermediary for the employer organizations in the tourism industry, i.e. NHO Reiseliv, NHO Luftfart, NHO Arktis, Virke, Spekter, the Norwegian Shipowners' Association, the Norwegian Farmers' Association and SMB-Norway. For employees, we enjoy good dialogue with LO, Fellesforbundet and Creo.
Together with NHO Reiseliv, NHO Luftfart and Virke, we have formed the Writing Group, which was tasked with preparing a strategy proposal for export initiatives. The CEO chaired the group and had several meetings with the administration of the Norwegian Export Council, played an active role in the steering group for the export strategy, and attended several board meetings and made presentations to the Board of the Norwegian Export Council. A proposed strategy for considering tourism as an export industry was submitted to the Minister of Trade and Industry in April 2024.
Other areas of co-operation in 2024 include the efforts to finance a new Travel Insurance Fund, as well as safeguarding Norwegian tourism companies against competition with international companies.
The CEO has a regular column in Travel News and has participated in several debates and given presentations at tourism conferences across the country. It is important for Norwegian Tourism Partners that we are report where things are happening, that we contribute fact-based expertise and that we make the association visible as the independent, unifying organisation in the travel industry. We succeeded in this endeavour in 2024, and will continue in 2025.
Norwegian Tourism Partners has collaborated with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration on the national tourist road initiative, in which the CEO serves as the chair of the Tourist Road Forum, which has been established by the NRPA to be a key advisor on the continued development of this initiative.
We enjoy very good collaboration with Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Europe. This collaboration is essential to ensuring the visibility, networking and skills development of the tourism industry, as well as shared utilisation of the resources in our respective organisations.
The association enjoys good collaboration with academia in Norway and Europe, both in connection with research projects and with guest lectures. The CEO has, among other things, been active in the research project "Innovative Festival Tourism", which is a development project in collaboration with the Inferno Festival, Beyond The Gates and the University of Southeast Norway (UIS).
In 2024, Norwegian Tourism Partners finalised a new graphic profile and logo, developed a new online solution for the association, and began implementing these.
Oslo, 23 April 2025
Thomas Reinsborg /s/ Anne Tørå Solsvik /s/ Bjørn Arild Wisth /s/
Board Chairman Deputy Board Chairman
Stein Ove Rolland /s/ Kjetil Halvor Smette (s/ Per Arne Tuftin /s/
CEO