Figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were approximately 2.4 million notice the difference between “guest nights” and “guest”. One guest may have several guest nights. at Norwegian Commercial accommodation establishments: the numbers refer to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites, and youth hostels. in October 2021. This was a 6 per cent increase compared to October 2019 and a 57 percent increase compared to October last year, when many restrictions were still in effect.
2.4 million guest nights is the highest number recorded in Statistics Norway for the month of October.
Norwegian guest nights contributed solely to this increase. Compared to October 2019, Norwegian guest nights at hotels and camping sites increased by 11 percent and 32 percent respectively.
1 in 3 foreign guest nights were still absent. The largest declines among foreign guest nights compared to October 2019 were from USA and China, countries where restrictions were still in place.
Autumn is typically a high season for events and conferences at hotels and the lifting of restrictions brought the utilization rate of rooms back to pre-pandemic levels. There were 282 000 guest nights with course or conference as the purpose for travel. This was about the same number as in October 2019 and 146 per cent more than last year.
Regional differences
There were, however, large regional differences in hotel guest nights compared to October 2019. Agder and Innlandet counties had increases by 35 and 31 per cent respectively. On the other end of the scale, guest nights in Oslo fell by 21 per cent. Hotel guest nights in Viken and Troms og Finnmark counties remained unchanged.
Increase at camping sites
There were approximately 223 000 guest nights at Norwegian camping sites in October 2021. This represented a 29 per cent increase from October 2019. Norwegian guest nights increased by 32 percent while foreign guest nights increased by 8 per cent.
Compared to October 2020, Norwegian and foreign guest nights at camping sites increased by 17 and 130 per cent respectively.
The Government lifted travel restrictions for the EEA/Schengen countries on 25th September 2021. Restrictions were also lifted for other countries with lighter restrictions. 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 October. Hotels that are exclusively quarantine hotels are not included in the statistics