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TOURISM

Why Brits and Germans can’t get enough of northern Sweden

The number of British tourists travelling to Sweden's northernmost county has doubled since 2010, according to the regional tourist board. And it's not the only nationality on the increase.

Why Brits and Germans can't get enough of northern Sweden
Northern Lights in Sweden. Photo: Magnus Hjalmarson Neideman/SvD/TT

Northern Lights. Skiing. Winter. Midnight Sun. Icehotel.

There's no shortage of tourist attractions in northern Sweden. And it looks like the world has caught on, with an increasing number of international tourists travelling to the northernmost county, Norrbotten, every year.

“We have seen an incredible development in the past few years,” Erica Mattsson, CEO of hospitality organization Swedish Lapland Visitors Board, told the TT newswire on Tuesday.

Two thirds of Norrbotten visitors are from other parts of Sweden, but the number of foreign tourists is growing at a faster rate than Swedish tourists thanks to a series of international marketing campaigns.

The number of Brits visiting the county has doubled since 2010, and German tourists have increased by 50 percent in the same period. In 2016 alone, British tourists increased by 20 percent, according to Swedish Lapland Visitors Board. A spokesperson told newspaper NSD that it was the biggest increase of the year.

Mattsson told TT that the region has developed its international marketing strategy together with Norway, Finland and Iceland in recent years to target tourists wanting to experience life in the Arctic region.

“It is like an entire package of Arctic winter experiences. But what really has developed in these years is Aurora tourism,” she said, listing for example dog sleigh tours and photography courses specifically focusing on northern Scandinavia's dazzling Northern Lights phenomenon.

“We have had a clear focus on Europe, mainly Great Britain and Germany. We are now also starting to expand the market to more European countries, but also the US. And we are also looking at Asia,” said Mattsson.

READ ALSO: Seven stunning Northern Lights snaps from Sweden

Northern Sweden is not the only region welcoming more and more international tourists. The success of hit TV shows The Bridge and Wallander among other things in 2015 saw the number of Brits travelling to southern region Skåne rise by 29 percent in just one year.

TRAVEL NEWS

Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Passengers travelling from Aarhus Airport using Scandinavian airline SAS are likely to find more convenient onwards connections from September.

Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Convenient connections to European hub airports in Amsterdam and Paris will become easier to find from Aarhus Airport from September.

A code-sharing agreement between Scandinavian airline SAS and Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines means that flight codes from those airlines – and more efficient connections via Copenhagen – will appear at Aarhus, the Jutland airport said in a press release on Tuesday.

The agreement gives Aarhus Airport passengers access to over 1,000 European destinations through so-called SkyTeam network.

For example, the code-sharing networks cuts journey times from Aarhus (via Copenhagen) to Amsterdam Schiphol to 2 hours 50 minutes, and to Paris CDG to 3 hours and 50 minutes.

“We are becoming more global. With only 30 minutes’ driving time from Aarhus, people in the region can save a huge amount of time flying from Aarhus Airport to an impressive number of Air France, KLM or SkyTeam destinations,” the airport’s director Lotta Sandsgaard said in the press release.

The agreement “has great significance for the international business environment in the Aarhus region and in a tourism perspective for a booming sector by attracting travellers from European and overseas markets,” she added.

The SK flight code, one of the codes which will be used at Aarhus under the agreement, is operated by Air France and KLM from their respective hubs. This means destinations including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Porto, Newcastle, Southampton, Cardiff, Venice and Naples as well as Marrakesh, Tunis and Casablanca in North Africa can be booked.

Destinations including Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Orlando, Cincinnati, Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit and Salt Lake City and more can also be booked with Air France and KLM to and from Aarhus Airport.

Travellers in Aarhus will also see new connections between SAS and Delta-operated flights to dozens of destinations across the USA and Canada via Delta’s North American network. The deal means they can travel to these destinations with one check-in at Aarhus Airport’s SAS counter.

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