After a long and difficult year for the hotel industry, the wind has now turned. New figures for the month of July show the highest number of hotel nights since March last year when the corona pandemic hit. 

– It's a completely different life and bustle now, last spring not a car passed here, says David Viklund, hotel manager at Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm.

Hotels in Sweden are basically back to normal, as they were before the pandemic. When about eight out of ten hotel beds in Sweden were booked, then covid-19 came and the number fell to four. Now it has been almost a year and a half since the pandemic started and the hotel industry is starting to flourish again, with six out of ten beds booked in July.

– Now we can actually hire more people again because we had to lay off a lot of people last year, says Peder Wiklund, hotel owner in Storuman.

Many homeowners

The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, which produced the figures, believes that Swedes traveling within the country on "home holidays" have contributed to the bright upturn. And in several parts of the country, they have also had a record season this summer.

– The Predator Park was the first choice, then we saw Santa Claus Land and that the cabin was vacant, so now we're staying and cycling, says Katarina Sten, who visited Orsa Grönklitt in Dalarna.

Stockholm is lagging behind

Stockholm is having its best month in July in terms of occupancy since March last year. But hotels have not recovered quite as well as the rest of Sweden. In terms of the number of rented hotel beds, only four out of ten were booked in July. 

– Many of the tourists who visit hotels in Stockholm also go to events in the city, the events have not really started yet, which means that the hotel market has been affected by this, says Stefan Westerberg, chief economist at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

Source:svt