Figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were approximately 883 000 notice the difference between “guest nights” and “guest”. One guest may have several guest nights. at Norwegian The numbers refer to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites, and youth hostels. in April, a 167 per cent increase compared to April last year. April 2020 was, however, the month with the strictest restrictions during the pandemic. It is therefore important to see these numbers in connection with pre-pandemic figures. There was a 58 per cent decline, compared to April 2019.

Figure 1. Total guest nights for April

The decline compared to April 2019 was seen across all types of accommodation. Guest nights at Norwegian hotels fell by 67 percent compared to April 2019. Guest nights at All types of establishments with a rental unit (apartments, huts, etc.) with self-catering and limited service. Stays are short-term. declined by 33 percent and those at camping sites fell by 22 per cent.

Many empty hotel rooms

There were about 239 000 guests for a little over 66 000 available hotel rooms in April 2021. Figures from the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB) show that there were 11 100 guests at quarantine hotels in Norway in April. Quarantine hotels were not included in the statistics in accordance with Eurostat definitions.

Only one in four rooms was occupied at hotels in Norway in the month of April. Before the pandemic, the utilization rate of hotel rooms was around 50 per cent.

There were, however, large regional differences. Ringsaker, Oppdal and Hardangerfjord had a utilization rate of 10 per cent. On the other end of the scale, the Nord-Troms-region, Hitra/Frøya and Fjordkysten had utilization rates of 45, 49 and 55 per cent, respectively.

Eurostat has an overview of important short-term indicators and their development during the pandemic.

In order to limit import infection, the Government introduced a quarantine hotel scheme on 5 November 2020. Guidelines have changed several times. In April, all persons arriving in Norway had to undergo 10-day quarantine but there were changes to which groups were exempt and to the length of stay at quarantine hotels. For more information, see the governments’ webpage.

In accordance with Eurostat, quarantine hotels are not included in the accommodation statistics even when there is economic activity at the hotel. Quarantine guest nights cannot be assigned by purpose as holiday, occupation or course, conference. It was not possible to extract all quarantine guest nights and some stays at quarantine hotels are included in the statistics for April. Hotels that are exclusively quarantine hotels are not included in the statistics.