During this year's winter season, a total of 21 million guest nights were spent in Sweden, an increase of 1 percent from the previous year. The number of foreign guest nights increased by 8 percent, while Swedish guest nights decreased by 3 percent. The largest increase was accounted for by Danish guests – 190,000 more guest nights, which means an increase of 25 percent compared to last year's winter season. This is shown by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth's figures from the accommodation statistics for the winter season 2024.
Foreign guest nights are increasing, but Swedes still account for four out of five guest nights
The winter season in Sweden extends from December to April and is an important period for tourism as many Swedes travel within the country.
Of the total 21 million overnight stays, foreign tourists accounted for 4.3 million. This is an increase in foreign guest nights of 8 percent (or 330,000 guest nights) from the previous year. This means that foreign guest nights accounted for 20 percent of guest nights during the winter season.
Denmark in particular is increasing its visits, and the number of guest nights from Danes has increased by 25 percent (equivalent to 190,000 guest nights) from the previous year during the period. At the same time, the number of Swedish guest nights in the country decreased by -3 percent, which means a decrease of 500,000 Swedish guest nights from the previous year.
Of the types of accommodation, only the brokerage of private homes and cottages had a positive development and had increased its rentals by 7% during the winter season compared to the previous year.
Foreign guest nights drive Swedish winter tourism
The winter season is an important period for Dalarna, Jämtland, Norrbotten, Värmland and Västerbotten, which are the major winter destination counties. The five counties had a combined 7.2 million guest nights during this year's season, of which Dalarna accounted for almost half of these with three million. For Dalarna and Jämtland, half of their total number of guest nights for the year often occurs during the winter season.
During this year's winter season, guest nights in the winter destination counties increased by 3 percent compared to the previous year. It is primarily foreign visits that are driving the positive development, with foreign guest nights increasing by 25 percent compared to the previous period.
– The currency effect for Sweden's winter tourism continues and countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany have significantly increased their guest nights in the winter destination counties. The largest foreign market by far is Denmark, which this year accounted for 40 percent of all foreign guest nights in the mountains, says Patrik Svensson, statistician at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
In Dalarna, Denmark accounts for 3 out of 4 of the foreign guest nights in the county, but in Värmland, Danes also account for half of all foreign guest nights. This year, Denmark also overtook Norway as the largest market in Jämtland, where Norway had previously been the largest. In Norrbotten, however, Germany is the largest market, and for Västerbotten it is Norway.
While foreign guest nights are increasing, the negative trend for Swedish accommodation also continues for the winter destination counties. Swedish guest nights decreased by approximately –1 percent, (or the equivalent of 50,000 guest nights). Swedes still account for 4 out of 5 guest nights in the five winter destination counties during this period, but the proportion of foreign guest nights increased this year from 17 percent to 20 percent of the total number of guest nights.
Norrbotten County had the largest proportion of foreign guest nights. During the winter season, 40 percent of guest nights in the county were from foreign guests.
The majority of regions had a negative development
During the period, guest nights increased in seven of Sweden's 21 counties compared to the previous year. Dalarna and Värmland increased relatively the most, with 6 percent and 7 percent respectively. Dalarna had the largest absolute increase among the regions, which meant 180,000 more guest nights than in the winter season of 2023.
Kalmar and Kronoberg decreased relatively the most, and Jämtland stands out among the winter destination counties with a negative development of guest nights of -4 percent. This also meant that Jämtland lost the most guest nights in absolute terms with 65,000 fewer guest nights compared to the previous year.
Among the metropolitan regions, there is a mixed development. Skåne lost 3 percent of guest nights from the previous year and Västra Götaland increased by 1 percent. Stockholm had about the same number of guest nights as the previous year.
On The Swedish Agency for Economic Growth statistics portal You can follow the development of guest nights, accommodation revenue, occupancy rate distributed by month and county or municipal level.
Regarding the statistics:
Tillväxtverket is responsible for accommodation statistics, which are part of Sweden's official statistics. It reports on overnight stays, capacity, occupancy rates, and guests' countries of origin for commercial accommodation facilities in Sweden (hotels, cottage villages, hostels, commercially rented private cottages and apartments, and campsites).
Guest nights are a measure of the number of nights guests spend at commercial accommodation establishments.
The statistics for 2024 are preliminary and the final statistics will be determined in April 2025.
According to the press release.
