There were 768 000 foreign guest nights at commercial accommodation establishments in May this year. This is 105 000 more than in May last year according to new figures from the accommodation statistics.

– Foreign guest nights are back to their pre-pandemic levels, and the weakened krone seems to have attracted more foreign tourists to Norway, says advisor Boyd Oyier in Statistics Norway (SSB).

There were 2.9 million guest nights in total at This refers to hotels, short-term holiday dwellings, camping sites and youth hostels in May this year, approximately the same as in May last year. There were, however, differences behind this figure; 112 000 fewer Norwegian guest nights and 105 000 more foreign guest nights.

Figure 1. Foreign guest nights at commercial accommodation establishments. May 2014-2023

Source: Accommodation, Statistics Norway

One in five foreign guest nights was German

Norway has been a preferred destination for Germans for a long time. Germans accounted for 22 per cent of foreign guest nights in May this year. The other top countries were USA, Sweden and the Netherlands, who together accounted for 31 per cent of all foreign guest nights.

– Even though foreign guest nights are back to their pre-pandemic levels, guest nights from Asia continue to lag behind, says Boyd Oyier.

There were 14 800 guest nights from China, South Korea and Japan. This was 12 000 more than in May last year, but 54 100 fewer than for the same month in 2019.

More foreigners at hotels

There were 2 million guest nights at hotels in May and foreigners accounted for a quarter of these. Foreign guest nights at hotels increased by 30 per cent year on year in this period.

By county, Oslo had the most foreign guest nights at hotels with 168 000. Vestland had 114 000 guest nights.

Figure 2. Foreign hotel guest nights by county. May 2022 and 2023

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.