Tourism in Sweden Effects of tourism on the economy, exports and employment and tourism volumes, behaviour and supply & demand Facts & statistics 2010 Contents Tourism in Sweden 3 Challenges and development 4 Key figures 8 Effects of tourism on the economy 10 Export value of tourism 19 Effects of tourism on employment 24 International tourism 28 Tourism in Sweden 32 Domestic tourism 42 Inbound tourism 50 Outbound tourism 61 International meetings 67 Definitions and sources 69 Additional copies of this publication may be ordered from www.tillvaxtverket.se/publikationer © Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth Stockholm, November 2011 Print run: 500 copies; thereafter, print on demand Author: Peter Terpstra Production: Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth Graphic design: Ordförrådet AB Printing: Danagårds Grafiska AB Info 0372 ISBN: 978-91-86987-13-8 TOURISM IN SWEDEN Tourism in Sweden The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the authority responsible for tourism industry issues, develops enterprise policies for the promotion of tourism initiatives and entrepreneurship. The Agency is also responsible for official tourism statistics and the production and dissemination of knowledge about the development of tourism and its effects on Swedish economy. The global economy continued to strengthen in 2010 and this had a positive effect on travel. In Sweden, the total turnover for tourism rose by 3.2 percent to almost SEK 255 billion. Both employment and export value (foreign visitors’ consumption in Sweden) continued to rise, which helped to create growth in Sweden. According to international analyses, travel and tour- ism will achieve global annual growth of just over 5 percent between now and 2020. Sweden is well placed to take a share of this increase, as it has the basic resources – attractive desti- nations and facilities, and value-added natural environments and culture – that are needed to meet the expected demand from leisure and business travellers. Many different parties are dependent on decision support data. Authorities, the business community, tourism organisa- tions, tourism consultants and research institutions often use the sources quoted in this publication in addition to their own investigations when analysing specific issues. Tourism as an activity is a highly complex phenomenon, which often defies simple description. In this publication, travel and tourism are illustrated from many different per- spectives, such as the economy, employment, volumes, behav- iour and supply & demand. It is our aim that the data con- tained in Tourism in Swedish will contribute to increased knowledge and continuing development of the sector. Stockholm, October 2011 Christina Lugnet Peter Terpstra Director General Tourism Analyst 3 CHALLENGES AND DEVELOPMENT Challenges and development What is tourism? The UN’s internationally accepted definition describes tour- ism as the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes. The definition covers virtually all activities and consumption di- rectly connected with travel, including business travel. It is the person who consumes and not what is produced that determines what is tourism. This is in contrast with tradition- al definitions of different sectors, industries and segments. The traditional definition of the airline industry, for example, is based on what the industry’s companies produce. Although a large proportion of the activity within the air line industry is attributable to tourism, it is only 88 percent, as the other 12 percent relates to activities such as cargo handling and technical services. Similarly, only half of the activity with- in the hotel & restaurant sector counts as tourism. This is be- cause the remaining consumption, particularly in restaurants, is by the local population and is, by definition, not tourism. See also the definitions at the end of this publication. Conceptualisation is a critical factor in the achievement of a strong information culture and effective knowledge develop- ment. It is hard to develop and work with tourism statistics and statistics-based information if the definitions and concep- tualisation are not distinct and taken on board by both the producer and user of the information. 4 CHALLENGES AND DEVELOPMENT Why tourism? Not only does travel and tourism help to create understanding and build bridges between people from different places and cul- tures, it is also a trade-creating and wealth-building tool. Sus- tainable development of a wider range of natural and cultural activities, restaurants and attractions, can also create more at- tractive living environments. Travel and tourism provides in- come for many businesses and creates jobs. It also generates tax revenue and plays an essential part in the creation and develop- ment of a larger and more attractive infrastructure. New primary industry Total tourism turnover in Sweden rose by 3.2 percent to al- most SEK 255 billion in 2010. Almost 50 percent of this figure was attributable to domestic leisure travellers, while 17 percent was attributable to domestic business travellers and just over 34 percent to foreign visitors. Tourism’s export value, meas- ured as foreign visitors’ consumption in Sweden, increased by 1.7 percent to just over SEK 87 billion in 2010, which was over 50 percent more than the iron and steel exports and more than double the value of Swedish car exports. Although the export value of the tourism industry makes a significant contribution to the Swedish economy, the indus- try’s ability to boost employment has also been a key develop- ment in recent years. Tourism is also able to create jobs for young people and has a need for the skills offered by people with foreign backgrounds. While employment in many tradi- tional primary industries in Sweden has declined, tourism has created 31,300 new jobs since 2000. In 2010, there were over 162,000 jobs in the tourism industry. Competitiveness and attractiveness Competitiveness is widely perceived as something that is cre- ated from within companies. However, where tourism is con- cerned another decisive factor comes into play, namely the at- tractiveness of the location or activity in question. The interaction of companies and attractiveness represents a key success factor. 5 CHALLENGES AND DEVELOPMENT Attractiveness is the sum of everything that characterises a particular location or activity – its natural and cultural envi- ronment, events, hosting venues, infrastructure and so on. Consequently, cooperation between many different players must be developed in order to generate effective competitive- ness. In addition to companies in different sectors, public or- ganisations are particularly relevant players, as they have a much more important and active role in tourism than in other more traditional sectors. Coordinating public initiatives In its capacity as the owner and manager of many attraction resources, such as national parks, historic monuments and in- frastructure, the public sector has a significant influence on the tourism industry’s growth potential. Tourism is also af- fected by numerous decisions, regulations and conditions in a wide range of other sectors and political spheres. Substantial resources are also allocated to direct and indirect promotion of the travel & tourism industry in a number of different sec- tors at both national and regional levels. The aim of the Swedish tourism policy is that Swedenshall be a highly attractive tourist destination with competitive long- term tourism, contributing to sustainable growth and increased employment throughout the country. In order to achieve these goals, a common strategy must be adopted, as well as effective cross-sectoral coordination of initiatives by government agen- cies that do not specialise in tourism, but whose activities are of importance to the development of tourism, or vice versa. Knowledge and statistics are key success factors As awareness of the importance of tourism increases, public and private players are showing more interest in getting in- volved in this area. In addition to public and private input, the tourism policy imposes specific requirements regarding meas- urement of the importance and development of tourism, as the effects are seldom or never seen in existing production sta- tistics. Neither public nor private initiatives can contribute to success if it is not based on knowledge. Knowledge is needed in the form of statistics and studies, in order to assess whether 6 CHALLENGES AND DEVELOPMENT initiatives are having an impact, and to allow effective market- ing, product and destination development. There is also a need to strengthen research in this area. It is still the case that many public R & D programmes and other initiatives mainly target traditional manufacturing industries, which also means there is considerable scope for improve- ment.1 The export value of tourism, i.e., foreign visitors’ consumption in Sweden, makes an important contribution to the Swedish economy. With a domestic market of just over nine million inhabitants, the anticipated growth will be dependent on for- eign markets. A continuous border survey to measure vol- umes, visitor preferences and consumption patterns will en- sure effective product development and marketing of Sweden as a destination. To this end, data collection for a new national border survey began in 2011. Global challenge Global tourism’s