Travel survey, Q4 2005

During this quarter the number of trips totalled 4.2 million - an increase of 2 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2004 constituting an average of 2.2 trips per person.

More business trips

The number of business trips increased by 46 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2004 to the corresponding quarter of 2005. Nights spent on business trips increased by 88 per cent. The increase in business trips also appears in the accommodation statistics for hotels as well.

Almost 68 per cent of the trips were on holidays while 32 per cent were business trips in the fourth quarter in 2005. In the corresponding quarter of 2004 these figures were 78 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

Outbound trips

About 25 per cent of the trips were outbound ones. About 20 per cent of these trips had Denmark as destination, while United Kingdom and Sweden came second and third.

Total nights spent decrease

Totally we spent 14.3 million nights on the trips made in the fourth quarter of 2005 - a decrease of 8 per cent compared with the corresponding quarter of 2004, and this is due to a decrease in nights spent on holiday trips. The average duration was 3.4 on the nights spent, a little less than in 2004.

Tourist expenditure decreased

In the fourth quarter of 2005 we spent 14.7 billions on the trips we made. This is a decrease of 3 per cent compared with the last quarter of 2004.

Tables:

• Table 1 Number of tourists, by destination, purpose of the trip and sex and age. 4th quarter 2005. Millions
• Table 2 Number of trips, by purpose and destination of the trip. 4th quarter 2005. Millions
• Table 3 Number of nights, by purpose and destination of the trip. 4th quarter 2005. Millions
• Table 4 Tourist expenditure, by purpose and destination of the trip. 4th quarter 2005. NOK billion
• Table 5 Number of outbound trips, by selected destinations and purpose of the trip. 4th quarter 2005. 1 000