The Stockholmtown Blog

The Vasamuseum in Stockholm was awarded The best tourism experience in Sweden in The Trip Global Award ceremony in Stockholm. Skansen in Stockholm was one of the second prize winners and Millennium Tour in Stockholm was also among the nominated. Read more here.

When the american TV-channel CNBC lists their favorite business hotels they list Grand Hotel in Stockholm as number 13. The five star service and the Mathias Dahlgren restaurant is especially recognized.

Junibacken, Strömma Turism och Sjöfart and Tom Tits Experiment are the three nominees for the Stockholm Region final in the Stora Turismpriset. The finalist from Stockholm will be chosen on the upcomming friday, 11 Sept. Finalists from eight regions in Sweden are competing for the Swedish Tourism Prize which will be awarded on October 22.

Stockholm have been nominated in four categories for the World Travel Award.

• Europe's Leading Conference Hotel - Grand Hotel Stockholm
• Europe's Leading New Hotel - Långholmen
• Europe's Leading Cruise Destination - Stockholm
• Europe's Leading Cruise Port - Stockholm

Several Stockholm hotels are found on the Swedens best list as well.

Swedens best Boutique Hotel (Four out of four nominees from Stockholm)
Berns Hotel, Elite Plaza Hotel, Hotel J Nacka Strand, Nordic Light Hotel

Swedens best Business Hotel (Four out of five nominees from Stockholm)
Grand Hotel Stockholm, Hilton Stockholm Slussen Hotel, Radisson SAS Royal Viking Hotel, Stockholm, Sheraton Stockholm Hotel

Swedens leading hotel (Four out of five nominees from Stockholm)
Grand Hotel Stockholm, Hilton Stockholm Slussen Hotel, Krägga Herrgårdar, Victory Hotel

Scandinavian cities are known for being expensive. This is no longer true for Stockholm. Mercers latest Cost of Living Index lists Tokyo and Moscow as the most expensive cities in the world. Stockholm is not even found on the top 50 list. Copenhagen is the seventh most expensive city, followed by Oslo is number 14 and Helsinki 19.

The open air museum in Skansen is one of the ten finalists in the competition "Swedens most beautiful park 2009". (swedish webiste) Criterias like accessability, architecture, management and commitment. The ten parks are chosen by a jury.

Björn Kjos, CEO at the norwegian airline Norwegian says that he loves to travel to Stockholm! In an interview at Flygtorget he says: "I love skiing. But I love to travel to Stockholm. We have several good friends their and we usually go out to islands in the archipelago, go to the opera or eat in Old Town. There is no place like Old Town here (Oslo) or in Kopenhagen. I think that Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, a fantasicly beautiful city. Stockholm is under estimated by the norwegians.

"The architectural integrity of Stockholm's Old Town-Gamla Stan-has been maintained. Even the intense tourism retailing appears to have maintained cultural integrity rather than taken away from it. One of the most attractive old city areas in northern Europe.", one of the experts explained. Read more here

No other nordic destination is found on the top-ten-list. An international panel of 280 experts to evaluate the destinations based on six criterias. Here is the entire list.

The prestigious travellermagazine Condé Nast Traveller lists the new Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm as one of the top hotels this year "Quite simply the finest hotel in Stockholm", they say. "The new Lydmar is a perfect post-designer hotel: confident, relaxed and at ease with itself" Condé Nast Traveller adds. Lydmar is one of the two hotells in Scandinavia mentioned in the Condé Nast Travellers Hot List.

When the cargo trade chose their favorite airport - they chose Stockholm Arlanda Airport. The Air Cargo Worlds yearly ranking list puts Arlanda Airport in the first place.  "Stockholm's Arlanda airport made a significant jump from 105 to 116.9 overall to top the Index in the below 500,000 tonnes category". Air Cargo Excellence Survey is done by Air Cargo World.

Stockholm-Arlanda has the best newly opened airport shop in the world, according to an international jury. Stockholm-Arlanda won in keen competition with London Heathrow and the airport in Macau. The Nuance Group, which operates several duty- and tax-free shops at Stockholm-Arlanda, accepted the honour in London at the DFNI Global Awards, which is comparable to the Oscar gala of the travel retail trade.

• environmental quality
• social and cultural integrity
• condition of historic buildings
• aesthetic appeal
• tourism management quality
• and the outlook for the future

Environmentalism is described like this "With a comprehensive plan for an "Environmental Sweden", the country's policy for ecologically sustainable development endevors to solve all major environmental problems for the next generation"

Standard of living as this: "With forward-thinking  privatized pensions, low inflation and one of the highest rates of GDP per hour worked, Sweden is a world leader in living standards"