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Sweden to tourists: frolic in our forests

Hot on the heels efforts to turn Sweden into the world's culinary capital, the government is set to announce a new initiative meant to make Sweden's vast forests one of the country's primary tourist attractions.

Sweden to tourists: frolic in our forests

“When it comes to countries in Europe, Sweden has vast, sparsely populated forest areas that can offer a range of unique experiences for tourists,” agriculture and rural affairs minister Eskil Erlandsson told The Local.

Erlandsson explained that Sweden’s forests already play a vital role in the country’s economy, with the forestry sector responsible for employing 100,000 people and giving rise to 129 billion kronor ($18.7 billion) in exports such as paper, furniture, and packaging products.

However, he believes Sweden can do more to attract tourists, both from abroad and within Sweden, to the country’s forests and in so doing, provide an economic boost to many rural areas where job creation is a continual challenge.

“We want to create jobs in all parts of the country,” he explained.

“When people visit somewhere, they have to eat somewhere, and that creates jobs; they have to stay somewhere, and that creates jobs.”

In an effort to give Sweden’s tree-covered landscapes more prominence in tourism and economic development efforts, Erlandsson will unveil plans on Thursday which give the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen) a seat at the tourism promotion table.

“We want forests included in efforts to attract and increase the number of tourists in Sweden,” said Erlandsson.

By having the Forest Agency, which has primary responsibility for managing Sweden’s forests, work together with VisitSweden, the country’s main tourism promotion agency, and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), Erlandsson hopes to add expertise to discussions about tourism development projects centred on Sweden’s natural beauty.

“The Forest Agency has unique knowledge of which forested areas have a special value,” he said.

The government has also earmarked 80 million kronor to be spent on achieving a vision dubbed “The Forest Kingdom” designed to help use Sweden’s in a sustainable manner to create more jobs and help with rural economic development.

Erlandsson explained that much of the inspiration for the forestry tourism push stemmed from efforts he launched in 2008 to turn Sweden into a global leader in haute cuisine.

The initiative has, according to Erlandsson, had a noticeable effect in boosting the profile of Swedish cuisine abroad, and also helped create jobs back in Sweden.

He hopes that putting Sweden’s forests front and centre in tourism and branding efforts will have a similar effect.

According to Erlandsson, there are no shortage of activities to attract tourists to Sweden’s woodlands.

“There are a wealth of experiences to be had in the woods, from hunting and fishing, to recreation, berry and mushroom picking as well as bird watching,” he said.

“You can wander around for a whole day without seeing another person.”

A fan of spending time in the forests himself, Erlandsson looks to Swedish woodland as his “source for recreation, relaxation, and recovery”.

“There’s also plenty of beautiful natural scenery as well as lots of wildlife…with a little luck, you might even come face to face with an elk.”

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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