The Stockholmtown Blog

The favorite business travel destination for swedes is the Capital - Stockholm! According to the travelagent Resia every other business travel (46%) in Sweden goes to Stockholm. The number two favorite Gothenburg has only14 percent of the business bednights in Sweden

In 2010 Stockholm will get over 1,000 new hotel rooms, new conference facilities and larger exhibition grounds.

• On October 26, Hotel Skeppsholmen opens on the verdant island of Skeppsholmen, next to the Museum of Modern Art. While other hotels look abroad for inspiration, this new hotel has chosen to use all the best that Sweden has to offer. The interior of the yellow house dating from the 1700s was decorated by the Swedish design trio Claesson-Koivisto-Rune. www.hotelskeppsholmen.com/
• Stockholm International Fairs is expanding its exhibition grounds by 10,000 m², to 70,000 m². The new exhibition space will open in December 2009. www.stofair.se
• The international Marriott chain plans to open a four-star Courtyard Hotel at Kungsholmen in Stockholm in February 2010. The hotel, which looks out over Rålambshov Park and Riddarfjärden, will offer 270 large rooms and conference facilities for meetings of up to 300 people. www.stockholmcourtyard.se
• Elite Hotel Marina Tower is situated in Saltsjöqvarn, an old mill from which there is a fantastic view of the harbor and the inner city. The hotel will have 187 rooms and plans to open in February 2010. www.elite.se/marinatower  
• In 2010 Stockholm will get a new hotel and conference center in the downtown area. The Stockholm Waterfront Congress Center, with capacity for 3,000 guests, and a Radisson Blue hotel, with 418 rooms, will be directly linked by train to the central station and will be located next to City Hall. http://www.waterfrontbuilding.se/hotell_e.html
• In the summer of 2010, Stockholm will get a new five-star hotel. Nobis Hotel will open on Norrmalmstorg, with 200 rooms. www.nobis.se
• Recently opened are the charming Lydmar Hotel, with its view of the Royal Palace, and Story Hotel. Story is centrally located in Stockholm’s fashionable neighborhood, but offers lower prices thanks to a new hotel concept. www.lydmar.com, www.storyhotels.com   

Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (RCCL) will open a sales office in Stockholm.

ABBAWORLD will make its world premiere in London this autumn. The highly anticipated multi-media experience and exhibition will debut for a limited run in the heart of London. ABBAWORLD looks set to become one of London's most exciting experiences, bringing fans closer than ever before to the band by using state of the art technology and displaying previously unseen film and memorabilia across 30,000 square feet of space.

The venue selected for the world premiere of ABBAWORLD is a closely guarded secret whilst the necessary preparations take place; however, it is located in the heart of London's West End, close to public transport, and it will meet the highest expectations of the fans of ABBA.

An ABBA-museum was supposed to open in Stockholm this summer, but the plans were posponed and the concept sold. The new idea is to take the exhibition on a world tour and then end with a permanent attraction in Stockholm.


Read more about it here ABBAMuseum here

In October Stockholm will have three official Design Hotels in Stockholm. Each of them have chosen a main caracteristic for Stockholm - each hotel being unique and at the same time different. 

1) Clean crisp water

Stockholm is a city built on 14 islands and has an archipelago of 30 000 islands

Hotel J is a design hotel with a fresch navy style, by the waterfront

2) Light and darkness

Stockholm has light summers and dark winters

Nordic Light Hotel is its name a hotel focusing on light.

Urban and Nature

Stockholm has wild nature in the middle of the urban city

Hotel Skeppsholmen is contemporary and swedish, with locally produced food.

The international Marriott chain will open a Courtyard hotel in Stockholm, on Kungsholmen five minutes walk from the City Hall. Me and my colleagues went for a preview. Lots of day light, spacious rooms and a well planned logistics were some of my first impressions. Im looking forward to the opening in the end of February 2010!

It will be a four star hotel for both business and leisure travellers with easy access by car or metro. All 229 deluxe rooms, 40 premium rooms and the topfloor suite will be facing either the Rålambshov park and lake Mälaren or the new Lindhagens park. The rooms are spacious (min 26 sqm) and half of them will be connecting rooms, which makes them flexible.

The hotel will also feature a family restaurant "Björk bar & Grill" facing Rålambshovsparken with room for 160 guests a bar plus meeting facilities. The meeting area will be located in an open area on the first floor. The Grand Ballroom for 200-370 people offers day light, and so does the 12 meeting rooms etcetera. 

The hotel is situated at the end of Norr Mälarstrand with a great view of Lake Mälaren.

Stockholm will get a new unique water front hotel in February 2010. The former industrial estate Saltsjöqvarn (mill) will turn into a top class hotel named Elite Hotel Marina Tower.



The hotel will have 187 rooms and suites and meeting capacity for up to 450 persons plus a wellness centre, gym, restaurant and bar.

It takes some 20-25 minutes to reach the hotel from the city by boat or five minutes with a bus from Slussen



Other waterfront hotels in Stockholm
Radisson Strand Hotel
Hotel Diplomat
Hotel Esplanade
Grand Hotel
Hotel Lydmar
Hotel J

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.

Livstycket is a modern design and knowledge centre for immigrant women living in the Stockholm suburb Tensta. Their fabrics have turned from being work of immigrants to popular musthave fabrics in swedish homes. An exhibition on Nordiska Museet named "livstycket" (liv means life, waist and livstycke means corset). Every year they organize a christmasmarket (this year 28/11) and starting september 16 they will exhibit at Nordiska Museet

Better access to Arlanda Express and the commutertrains plus a direct entrance to the new Waterfront congress and hotel building are some of the major changes taking place at the Stockholm Central Station.

Stockholm Central station is the hub of the Swedish railway system and the commutertrains, metro and buses situated in the City terminal. New entrances, more stores, energy efficiancy and accessability are some of the main goals in the planned three year renovation project.

The goal is to lower the use of energy with 25 percent in order to be certified as a green building.

The new Hotel Skeppsholmen goes for the modern swedish feeling, says the Managing Director Joachim Olausson in business paper Dagens Industri. When other hotels look for inspiration abroad, Joachim and his team finds their inspiration in Sweden. The hotel is situated in former military buildins from the 1700s but the interior will show the very best of contemporary Swedish cuisine, art, design, fashion and music. The hotel will also be eco-labelled. Casual luxury, genuine feeling and charming, warm and caring personality will be the trademarks for the new hotel, signed by renowned Claesson Koivisto Rune

The new hotel opens October 26 in 2009


Its hard to believe that this is five-ten  minutes walk from the city centre


Nice details...
All photos by Max Plunger

Ryanair also opens a new route from Turin in northern Italy this autumn to Stockholm-Skavsta airport.