The Swedish government's investment of SEK 104.6 million in the marketing company Visit Sweden in 2024 resulted in marketing efforts for Sweden as a tourist destination with a PR/advertising value of approximately SEK 5.6 billion - an increase of 124% since 2023.
2024 has been a record year for Visit Sweden's global marketing. Among other things, approximately 4.1 billion people (gross) have been reached by Visit Sweden's global marketing. An increase of approximately +52% compared to 2023, when the gross reach was approximately 2.7 billion people.
International interest in Sweden as a destination will also continue to increase in 2024, as will the number of foreign overnight stays in Sweden.
Visit Sweden's annual report and annual accounts show that Visit Sweden's turnover in 2024 amounted to SEK 123.4 million with a result of (minus) -2,480 thousand SEK. The operating margin ended at (minus) -2.8% while the equity/assets ratio amounts to 44.8%.
The state's basic funding for the company was SEK 104.6 million for the public mission to market the travel destination Sweden.
In addition to the very successful marketing efforts of Sweden, Visit Sweden meets the state owner's goals for the business, except for the goal of an operating profit >0.5% which in 2024 is lower than 0.5%.
- Visit Sweden shows a result of -2,480 TSEK for the financial year, corresponding to an operating margin of -2.8%, which is in line with the decision to increase investment in reach and frequency to strengthen Sweden's international competitiveness, says Visit Sweden's CEO Susanne Andersson.
- Thanks to the Swedish tourism industry's dedicated work with attractive offers, experiences and products that we know the target group for our marketing demands, the entire Swedish tourism industry contributes to the fantastic results we see, which strengthens us in our continued work to attract more and the right target group to discover Sweden, Susanne continues.
PR value – a measure of financial return
PR value, also called advertising value, which for Visit Sweden amounts to approximately SEK 5.6 billion for 2024, is an accepted measure for PR that describes the cost of reaching the same target group with purchased advertising.
The advertising price of the media outlet that made the mention is taken as the basis and multiplied by a value to reflect article size, number of followers, brand exposure and how positive the article is, as well as an assumed higher credibility of editorial content compared to paid advertising.
There is no standard for the multiplication value, but 3 or 6 are common. Visit Sweden has chosen to use 2.4 as the multiplication value for many years.
The increase in PR value for Visit Sweden, for the travel destination Sweden in 2024, is largely due to an increased share of publication on TV in several countries, which has contributed to increased reach, broader impact and increased PR value.
The return on the government investment in Visit Sweden is greater than just the PR value. Things that are not included in the PR value include:
- The value of Sweden's visibility in countries beyond Visit Sweden's nine focus countries.
- The positive value for the image of Sweden.
- Tourism's contribution to local communities, jobs, infrastructure development, etc.
International interest in Sweden as a destination continues to increase
Interest in Sweden as a destination continues to increase internationally. This can be followed, among other things, by the number of international, travel-related searches about Sweden via global search engines.
In 2024, the number of searches increased by 6.7% compared to 2023, solely via the Google search engine, which means nearly 12.7 million searches about the tourist country Sweden in 2024.
The number of foreign overnight stays in Sweden increased in 2024
In 2024, a total of 69 million guest nights were recorded in Sweden, which is an increase of 0.7 percent from the previous year according to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
The number of overnight stays by foreign visitors in Sweden, which accounts for about a quarter of all overnight stays in Sweden, increased by 2 percent in 2024 from 16,472,523 guest nights in 2023. Compared to the record year before the pandemic, 2019, this is an increase of 0.8 percent from 16,678,430 guest nights.
Visitors from Germany, Denmark and Norway are the nationalities that accounted for the most foreign overnight stays in Sweden in 2024. Of the countries in which Visit Sweden markets Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the USA and China were the top five countries with the largest increase in the number of guest nights in Sweden in 2024 compared to 2023.
Visit Sweden's target delivery in 2024
Goal: 70% of Swedish tourism industry stakeholders will experience that Visit Sweden's destination marketing creates business benefit by 2025.
Delivery year 2024: 71%
Goal: 70% of Swedish tourism industry stakeholders will perceive Visit Sweden as leading and driving tourism development by 2025.
Delivery year 2024: 71%
Goal: 65% of international travelers who are looking for more sustainable alternatives by 2025 will be interested in visiting Sweden.
Delivery year 2024: N/A (measured every two years, next time in 2025)
Goal: 64% of Swedish travelers who are looking for more sustainable alternatives in 2025 will be interested in visiting Sweden.
Delivery year 2024: N/A (measured every two years, next time in 2025)
Target: Annual target for equity/assets ratio, adjusted equity/balance sheet total 20-30%.
Delivery year 2024: 45%
Target: Annual target for Operating profit, total revenue >0.5%.
Delivery year 2024: -2.8%
Source:Visit Sweden
