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Norway’s hotel industry braces for a tough winter

While many hotels in Norway saw the number of overnight stays return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the start of 2023 looks quite challenging - especially for the city hotels.

Published: 24 December 2022 13:22 CET

Scandic

Although many hotels in Norway experienced a return to pre-pandemic levels of overnight stays this year, the beginning of 2023 is expected to be difficult. Photo by Svein Sund / Unsplash

Bookings at major hotels for the first three months of next year are lower than at the same time last year, the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reports.

“We expect challenging winter months after the New Year, especially for the hotels in Oslo and at Gardermoen,” hotel consultant Peter Wiederstrøm told the newspaper.

The most recent figures show that, at Gardermoen, there is lower room occupancy in the first three months of 2023 compared to this year.

“Also, bookings look weak for the hotels in Oslo, with slightly lower estimated room occupancy for both January and February,” Wiederstrøm pointed out, according to the news bureau NTB.

Torgeir Silseth, the head of the Nordic Choice hotel chain, says that 2022 will be the best year ever but is also worried about the first quarter of next year, especially in Eastern Norway.

“But the signals we get from the market are not dramatic. We are talking about a 5-10 percent decrease for Norway as a whole – and close to 10 percent in Oslo,” he said.

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'I live here, unfortunately': Visit Oslo's new video ad reveals Norwegian humour

A recent video ad featuring Norway’s capital by VisitOSLO, the official marketing organisation for Oslo and the surrounding regions, has been attracting considerable attention on social media.

READ MORE: One day in Oslo: How to spend 24 hours in the Norwegian capital

Featuring the dry, understated humour typical of Norway, the ad stands out by not trying too hard to sell the city’s charms but instead offering an ironically halfhearted endorsement from a local.

A unique tour of Oslo

The ad’s protagonist, 31-year-old Oslo resident Halfdan, gives viewers a tour of his city through a lens of gentle mockery.

“I wouldn’t come here, to be honest,” he begins with a deadpan expression, setting the tone for the entire ad, before adding ‘I temporarily live here… unfortunately’.

As he wanders through the streets, he continues, “Oslo is just not… I mean, is it even a city, you know what I mean? Everything is just so… Available, you know? There’s no exclusiveness.”

His commentary highlights Oslo’s accessibility and small-town vibe, a contrast to the exclusivity often boasted by larger international capitals.

Halfdan also playfully jabs at the city’s cultural scene: “Culture? I don’t know. If you don’t have to stand in line for a couple of hours, is it even worth seeing?”

Standing in front of Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream, he quips, “It’s not exactly the Mona Lisa.”

And he also takes a dig at the locals who swim in Oslo’s fairly pristine waters. “It’s disgusting,” he says.

Reactions on Twitter

The ad has sparked a flurry of reactions on Twitter, showcasing that it resonated with audiences.

One user praised the ad’s cleverness: “This is pretty great. If people don’t ‘get it,’ they don’t deserve to go.”

Others echoed this sentiment with comments like “A city is also its attitude. And the choice of narrative in this ad says it so well” and “I want to visit Oslo now, haha.”

However, amidst the praises, some users pointed to Oslo’s high prices as an obstacle, with one noting, “Good ad. Except. It’s just LUDICROUSLY expensive. Like, laughably, impossibly so.”

Another added, “He got his table at that restaurant so easily because those three pieces of asparagus will cost him 50 US dollars.”

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