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Aalborg is world’s eighth-most interesting place to visit this year: New York Times

North Jutland’s Aalborg, the fourth-largest city in Denmark, is the eighth-most interesting travel destination this year, according to the New York Times.

Published: 11 January 2019 16:31 CET
Aalborg is world’s eighth-most interesting place to visit this year: New York Times
Aalborg's Musikkens Hus during a gymnastics event in 2017. Photo: Henning Bagger / Scanpix 2017

Aalborg is the latest Danish city to achieve recognition from a major international publication for its qualities as a tourism destination.

The New York Times’ recently published ’52 Places to Go in 2019’ includes the North Jutland city, population 136,000, at number 8, joining an eclectic mix of cities, regions, towns and territories on the list.

U.S. territory Puerto Rico is number 1 on the list, while Aalborg is sandwiched between two island groups – Japan’s Setouchi Islands and the Azores – placed at numbers 7 and 9 respectively.

The only European city or destination to appear higher than Aalborg is Munich, which takes fifth spot.

“Viking long ships once glided through Aalborg’s mighty Limfjord. Today, the city is turning its most famous natural asset into an artistic one,” the NYT writes, citing the Utzon design center, concert hall Musikkens Hus, Aalborg Street Food and the Nordkraft power plant-turned-culture-hub amongst the town’s highlights.

“The historic Aalborg Akvavit distillery, which produced the potent Scandinavian spirit, is being transformed into a new creative district over the next two years,” the write-up continues.

Visit Aalborg director Rasmus Jerver expressed his delight at Aalborg’s impressive inclusion on the list.

“It’s fantastic. When you know the city, and are used to marketing it, it’s easy to understand,” Jerver told DR.

“So when someone comes from outside and confirms that what we think about the city is also the experience they have of it, that is just great,” he added.

Jerver added that he was particularly proud of the achievement given that neither Visit Aalborg nor Aalborg Municipality had promoted the city to the New York Times directly.

The last Danish city to be placed high on the NYT list was Aarhus, which was awarded 16th place in 2016.

Aalborg’s success continues a good spell for Danish cities in international tourism recommendations.

In October, Lonely Planet named Copenhagen its top city to visit in 2019, after judging Aarhus number two in its list of the ten best destinations in Europe for 2016.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen named world's top city to visit by Lonely Planet

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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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