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Hobbit-village planned for Stockholm island

An entire hobbit-like village will be built in the archipelago of Stockholm, on the island of Muskö, for people to live in just like the English author J.R.R. Tolkien's character Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings.

Published: 17 August 2012 11:33 CEST
Hobbit-village planned for Stockholm island

“Living in a hobbit house is the smart and sustainable way to live in the future,” John Higson, the co-founder of the project told The Local.

In 2011 John Higson and Marie Eriksson co-founded Drömgården, a self-sustainable and eco-friendly farm and village, but the idea to build hobbit houses didn’t come until Higson heard about Simon Dale who’d built one for his family in Wales.

“Seeing Simon’s houses blew me away. They’re beautiful, unique and completely sustainable, and what a fantastic way to live,” John Higson told The Local.

Click here for a gallery of Simon Dale’s hobbit house in Wales

But it was not until Higson and his partner bought a plot of land inside the area of Drömgården, but a nice distance from the other buildings, that the idea was put into practice.

“I’ve always enjoyed living a little bit differently. The idea of just a hobbit style village came from talking to other people interested in being part of Drömgården,” Higson said.

Like Dale’s hobbit house which is located in a secluded part in Wales, the Swedish versions will be made with natural materials like straw, clay and timber, and erected on the edge of a forest overlooking some fields.

“Hardly anyone has been there in years as it was a restricted area site owned by the military. So nature has taken over and made it a perfect hobbit territory,” Higson said.

Apart from providing people with a sustainable way of life in the countryside, Drömgården allows people to become part owners of the already built cottages, circus wagons, the dairy, or in due time – the beer brewery and hobbit houses.

“Why pay for having a countryside house standing empty most of the year, when you can use your hard earned kronor for what you really need,” Higson said.

This allows people to own a small part of Drömgården but also to live there for whatever amount of time they want to, Higson explains.

The first house is expected to be completed by the end of 2012, and approximately fifteen more houses are currently planned under the supervision of Simon Dale, but the exact number is still undecided.

“People will be invited to join Simon Dale to plan their houses, but we’re debating as to whether it would be a good idea to build a pub first,” Higson said to The Local.

“You can’t have a hobbit village without a pub.”

Salomon Rogberg

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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?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
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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