New figures from the accommodation statistics show that there were around 2.9 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 May. Norwegian guest nights increased by 816 000 from May last year, while foreign guest nights increased by 559 000 in the same period.
– After two years of various travel restrictions guest nights are back to similar levels as before the pandemic. Compared with May 2019 there were more Norwegian guest nights, and a large increase in foreign guest nights, says Senior Advisor Sindre Torgals in Statistics Norway.
There were roughly as many guest nights at hotels compared with May 2019, while there was an increase in guest nights at camping sites and holiday dwellings and youth hostels. The number of overnight stays varies during the year and the pattern is repeated every year. Seasonal adjustment is used to remove what we call seasonal variations, such as public holidays from monthly time series. The adjustment removes the effects of these fluctuations, giving a clearer picture of the time series. the number of guest nights decreased by 0.7 percent from April to May 2022. Both Norwegian and foreign guest nights decreased slightly in seasonally adjusted terms.
Norwegian hotel stays at May high
There were almost 2 million guest nights at hotels in May this year, of which Norwegians accounted for almost 1.6 million, an increase of 122 percent for Norwegian guest nights.
– The number of Norwegian hotel guest nights is the highest ever recorded in May, since the statistic first measured it in 1985, says Sindre Torgals.
There were around 376 000 foreign guest nights at hotels in May, an increase of around 299 000.
– There is still a way to go before we reach the same level of foreign guest nights at hotels compared to before the pandemic. In May 2019 there were 181 000 more foreign guest nights at Norwegian hotels than in May this year, says Sindre Torgals.
The number of guest nights at hotels increased sharply in every county. The increase was particularly large in Oslo, where guest nights went up by a staggering 543 percent, and in Viken where they went up by 252 percent. Hotels in Oslo were particularly affected by the pandemic, and after the travel restrictions lifted both Norwegian and foreign Hotel guests have returned to Oslo.
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 at are included in the statistics for April. For accommodation establishments that have more than 25 guest nights from Ukraine during April, 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