Stockholm strengthens its position as the leading visitor destination in Scandinavia
In 2009 there were a total of 9.4 million overnight stays in hotels, hostels, cottages and campgrounds in Stockholm county. This is comparable with 2008, which was a record year. Stockholm was the capital with the most guest nights in the region last year, thus strengthening its position as the leading visitor destination in Scandinavia.
- ”We’ve gained market share from the other Nordic capitals, which makes us proud. Last year Stockholm’s share was 38.2 percent of guest nights when compared with the number of guest nights in Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki,” said Peter Lindqvist, CEO of the Stockholm Visitors Board.
Stockholm's success is due to a pronounced increase in leisure travel. The number of business travellers spending the night in Stockholm County declined by 9 percent last year, a development that was expected. During the same period the number of leisure travellers spending the night in the county rose by 10 percent, yielding an equivalent number of guest nights in Stockholm County for the entire year.
“Long-term joint marketing initiatives with our partners and a concentrated effort to bring more flights into Stockholm are some of the reasons the leisure travel segment is increasing," said Guri Höjgaard, Manager of Leisure Travel at the Stockholm Visitors Board.
The domestic market is still Stockholm’s most important market. Swedish visitors are responsible for two out of three overnight stays in hotels, hostels, cottages and campgrounds in Stockholm county. Most of our foreign visitors come from Germany, the UK, the US and Norway. The markets that grew the most in 2009 were Italy, Denmark, Finland and Germany.
