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TOURISM

Record bookings boost at Swedish camp sites

Swedish camp sites are well positioned to break all records this summer as foreign tourists flock to the Nordic country, according to an industry survey.

Record bookings boost at Swedish camp sites
Swedish camp sites are set for a record summer. Photo: Rob Vanstone/SCR

A total of 53 percent of the 228 caravan and camp sites polled by industry organisation SCR Swedish Camping reported that they had already received more bookings for the period between June and August than last year. 

And 40 percent said more foreign tourists had organised themselves a spot at one of Sweden's many camp sites compared to last summer.

“We've seen a rising interest for many years,” marketing and communications director Martin Juhos told The Local on Friday.

Enjoying your holidays in a caravan with your family is an already popular – and growing – phenomenon in Sweden, with tourists spending more than 15 million nights at camp sites every year.

The new figures follow a report by Tillväxtverket (the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth) earlier this week, which revealed that global visitors are spending more cash in the Nordic nation.

Tillväxtverket's figures suggested that foreign holidaymakers and business travellers spent an extra 10.2 billion ($12.4 million) kronor in 2014 compared to the previous year – an increase of 12.5 percent.

And according to SCR Swedish Camping, more than half (52 percent) of visitors from Sweden's most important markets – Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – choose to stay at a camp sites during June-August.

“I think that Sweden is the optimal country for campers. The camp sites are often located in beautiful areas. And I guess there's something about wanting to experience the Swedish summer that attracts people,” said Juhos.

The Swedish summer has of course been conspicuously absent so far, with the country experiencing its wettest month of May in decades. But forecasters have promised that higher temperatures are just around the corner.

“Just you wait and see!” laughed Juhos.

READ MORE: The Local's ultimate guide to travel in Sweden

Tourism is now one of Sweden's most important export industries and makes more money for the country than traditional sectors such as iron and steel.
 
According to Tillväxtverket, the value of the industry has increased by 137.5 percent since 2000, while the total growth in the value of Swedish exports was 66 percent over the same period.
 
Sweden is welcoming rising numbers of visitors from the UK and the US in particular this summer because the weak krona means that it is the cheapest time in years for travellers from these countries to visit Sweden.
 
But the Nordic nation recently tumbled in recent international tourism rankings. Transport links, prices and the quality of Sweden’s hotels were called into question in a global report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which listed the Nordic nation as 23rd in the world for travel and tourism compared to 5th place in 2011.
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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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