New figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were around 3.1 million Notice the difference between “guest nights” and “guest”. One guest may have several guest nights at The numbers refer to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites, and youth hostels in September this year. That’s 424 000 more than in September last year, and 268 000 more than September 2019.
2.3 million of the guest nights in September were Norwegian.
– This is the highest number measured for guest nights in September, says senior adviser Kristin Aasestad in Statistics Norway.
Hotel guest nights contributed the most to the increase in overall guest nights. Foreign hotel guest nights almost doubled, while Norwegian guest nights increased by 10 percent.
– Traditionally, September is a month with a lot of courses and conferences. Hotel guest nights with courses and conferences as the purpose increased by 45 percent compared with September last year, says Kristin Aasestad.
Strong growth for hotels
Hotels had 2.2 million guest nights in September. This was an increase of 21 percent compared with September last year, and on par with September 2019.
Half of the hotel guest nights were in the A tourism region is a regional classification for a level between county and municipality. These regions have been designated by a tourism bureau or other agency within the tourism industry in cooperation with Statistics Norway of Oslo, the Bergen region, Romerike, the Stavanger region and Trondheim. The number in Oslo increased by 57 percent measured against the same month last year. There was a large increase in the Bergen region and Romerike as well.
Prior to the pandemic, foreigners typically accounted for roughly 1 in 4 hotel guest nights in September. During the pandemic they accounted for roughly 1 in 10. This year foreign guest nights are almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
More guest nights at camping sites and holiday dwellings
There were 515 000 guest nights at Norwegian camping sites in September, 11 000 more than September last year. Foreign guest nights increased by 44 percent, while Norwegian guest nights fell almost 10 percent. Most counties had more foreigners at camping sites compared with last year. About 1 in 4 of the foreign camping guest nights were in Vestland county.
There were about 331 000 guest nights at All types of establishments with a rental unit (apartments, huts etc.) with self-catering and limited service. Stays are short-term, 11 percent more than September last year. Here too the increase came from foreign guest nights.
When looking at camping sites, holiday dwellings and youth hostels as a whole Vestland county had the most foreign guest nights, while Innlandet and Viken had the most Norwegian guest nights.
In accordance with definitions from Eurostat, refugees should be excluded from tourism statistics and not be considered as guests in the context of tourism statistics when they stay at a tourist accommodation establishment. Refugees from Ukraine cannot be assigned by purpose as holiday, occupation or course, conference. It was not possible to extract all refugees guest nights and some stays are included in the statistics. For accommodation establishments that have more than 25 guest nights from Ukraine during the month, the guest nights have been removed from the statistic. Establishments that are exclusively hosting refugees are not included in the statistics.
Seasonally adjusted figures for accommodation statistics were first introduced with the publication of the January 2022 statistics. Monthly time series are often characterized by considerable seasonal variations, which might complicate their interpretation. Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of these fluctuations, giving a clearer picture of the time series