The tourism industry in crisis: – – I call it the Black Death

In the past, the city of Tromsø was full of foreign tourists with bandages, especially from Asia. Now the tourists are absent and the people of Tromsø even wear a bandage under the northern lights, with a slightly thinner wallet.

Now the city, and all the other places that have had winter tourism, are living a deafening silence. Tromsø is going through a nightmare when it comes to tourism and the hotel industry.

– It can’t be worse than it is now. There is a corona infection all over the world, and besides, we don’t have snow. The market is dead, nobody comes here now, says Tove Sørensen.

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He has directed Tromsø Villmarkssenter for 30 years. Tourists from all over the world have come to the center to be drawn to the wild nature of northern Norway on dog sleds.

A year ago, I had 300 dogs and about 80 employees, and all the arrows were pointing up.

– I had to pinch my arm and was crying when I got to work in the morning. Hallelujah, how beautiful it was! We had happy guests, happy staff, and happy bank. Everything looked incredibly bright, until March 12, says Tove Sørensen.

The nature center has around 45,000 visitors in a normal year, but when the country closed, not a single guest arrived.

Alarms about “nightmare scenario” before Christmas

Decrease from 80 to 90 percent

– Then we had to try to adapt to get more Norwegian guests. We have received support from Innovation Norway and the state, and we do our best.

– How big has it decreased?

– I have not calculated it, but the decrease is probably between 80 and 90 percent. There are a few Norwegian guests, but most of our traffic was foreign guests.

When they ran out of guests, the company headed to the town of Tromsø. They managed to rent 200 dogs to ordinary families who wanted a dog for a period during the corona pandemic.

Wild growth in the rental market this Christmas

– We’ve done it so far, so it will probably work out well in the end. I usually call the crown black death, but at the same time you just have to roll up your sleeves and be positive. This should work, but it is clear there are many in the industry calling me and they are desperate. These are sturdy roofs, says Tove Sørensen.

– has never been worse

– I’ve never seen anything like it. Neither the stock market crash, SARS, nor the Chernobyl disaster came close to having the same effect as the corona pandemic. I have not experienced war, but I imagine it has never been so bad in peacetime, says Peter Widerstrøm to Børsen.

He is a hotel consultant who analyzes the Benchmarking Alliance figures on a monthly basis and produces reports on the hotel and tourism industry. You have never seen the recession Tromsø experienced.

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– Last year, Tromsø hotels sold out 85 percent of all rooms. This year, they sold just 28.6 percent of the same rooms. Clearly a huge amount is felt, says Widerstrøm.

From renting 91.4 percent of the rooms in February 2020, the figure fell to 6.9 percent in April.

This caused the authorities to stumble

Northern Norway loses 4.5 billion

In a Menon Economics report, they conclude that hotels in Tromsø have lost a turnover of almost NOK 2 billion from mid-March to the end of 2020. In northern Norway, they estimate an expected loss of income from accommodation, food and 4, NOK 5 billion activities / culture as a result of the crown crisis in 2020.

– The estimate is from September, and there is reason to believe that the loss could be even greater, says Erik W. Jakobsen of Menon Economics, who has produced the report.

– There has been a huge decline in the tourism industry since last year. It is heavy for many people. In tourist information, we have had a decrease of more than 90 percent both in the number of visitors and in sales of activities in October and November. The trend appears to continue into December, says Lone Helle, Tromsø tourism manager.

He is optimistic, but still believes that winter can be harsh for many who live off foreign tourists.

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– It may be better than we fear

– I honestly believe that the winter of 2021 can be very hard and difficult, but I hope we return to more normal circumstances in the 2021/2022 season. The vaccine gives cause for optimism, but we don’t know for sure what it will be like in the future, it may be better than we fear, but it can also get worse, says Helle, pointing to Denmark, which is now experiencing increased infection and a new closing of the company, he says. Lone Helle.

Fear lasting wounds

She is the managing director of Visit Tromsø, which in turn has had to fire all the tourist information employees except the director of operations. Tromsø is now in the period that is normally high season, so it is not uncommon for more than a thousand people to visit the tourist information in one day; now there are less than a thousand people in a month.

– How it goes in the future depends, among other things, on whether the number of guests picks up during the winter season, the support schemes of the authorities and how companies manage to adapt to the new daily life. We haven’t seen that many bankruptcies yet, but it is clear that there are many who are struggling financially with such a large loss of visitors and billing failure, Lone Helle tells Børsen.

Third largest industry

Tromsø has seen strong growth in tourism in recent years and has roughly the same amount of tourist activity in summer and winter, which is relatively unusual for destinations in Norway. In 2019, tourism was the third largest industry in the city, with a turnover of around four billion crowns.

– 2021 will be much worse than many think

In an NHO survey of its members, 43 percent of tourism businesses in Troms and Finnmark fear they will go bankrupt as a result of the crown.

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– According to 2019 figures, where the tourist turnover in the municipality of Tromsø was around 4 billion and just over 4,000 employees, we are talking about a reduction in turnover of 1.8 billion and approximately 1600 jobs threatened by layoffs , layoffs and bankruptcies in 2020, says Målfrid Baik, NHO Arctic regional director.

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The year of destiny 2021

Tourism is important to northern Norway. In 26 of the 39 municipalities in Troms and Finnmark, tourism is more important than the national average.

– The challenge for many of the companies will be to start the year financially on their knees or lying down. The war fund has been depleted and 2021 could be a fateful year for many companies, Målfrid Baik tells Børsen.