Sweden, an emerging bleisure destination

Tourism in Sweden is a sector which lets room for development. Notwithstanding, as reported by the World Travel & Tourism Council in its “Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2016”, in 2015 tourism generated a direct contribution of SEK 102,7bn, about 10,7bn euros. This represented 2,5% of total GDP, and it is foreseen to grow by 2,6% per year, up to SEK 140.5bn (14,7bn euros) in 2026 (2.8% of GDP). The total contribution was SEK 398,1bn (41,6bn euros), namely 9,6% of GDP. By 2026, it is expected to rise up to SEK 532,5bn (55,6bn euros), 10,4% of GDP.

The foreign visitors expense in 2015 was SEK 121,6bn (12,7bn euros), and it is expected to grow by SEK 164,9bn (17,2bn euros) in 2026. Notwithstanding, domestic travel spending represents the major income to Swedish GDP. In fact, in 2015, it represented 60,4% of direct Travel & Tourism GDP.

Sweden is a leisure destination, focused on winter sports and cultural cities, but has a strong business supply, too. In fact, business travel spending, both domestic and inbound, represented 49,6% of direct Travel & Tourism GDP, namely SEK 152,2bn (15,9bn euros). As underlined in the report “Travel and Tourism in Sweden” released by the Swedish Trade & Invest Council, business segment dues its competitiveness to developed communication systems and hotels, which are responding to the growing demand for quality accommodations. According to The Swedish Travel and Tourist Industry Federation (RTS), hotels and accommodation facilities need to be improved not only in the major cities, but also in the surrounding regions.

As reported by the World Economic Forum’s “Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report”, Sweden is 23rd out of 141 analysed Countries for tourism competitiveness. Its tourism supply is strong and well organised. In particular, it can count on “ICT Readiness” (4th), “Environmental Sustainability” (9th) and “Air Transport Infrastructure” (20th). A weaker point is “Price Competitiveness” (134th).

As reported by OECD’s “Tourism Trends and Policies 2016”, the major challenges for Swedish tourism are connectivity and transport, profitability, destination and product development, seasonality and sustainability.

The Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation released the “Sweden’s National Strategy for Sustainable Regional Growth and Attractiveness 2015–2020”. The report underlines the necessity of international cooperation, and the willing to improve attractive environments and accessibility. In fact, according to Sweden Sverige, the Swedish official portal, about 1,5 million people in Sweden have a kind of disability, and the Government aims to make transportation systems and the major cities accessible to everyone.

During 2016, Sweden registered a surprising growth by 29% of British arrivals to the southern area of the Country, in particular to Skåne County, which is benefitting from the success of hit TV shows “The Bridge” and “Wallander”. Moreover, Skåne has also been making headlines in the past year for its gastro-tourism boom, as 3 Malmö restaurants were awarded Michelin stars in February 2016, with a fourth in the town of Tranås. As underlined by Tourism in Skåne, Britain, Poland, Norway and China are currently priority markets for the County.

Sweden is still perceived as a safe destination. According to the UK Foreign Travel Advice, there is a general threat from terrorism. Crime levels, even in the major cities, are low.

At Twissen we observed that the business segment has the potential to lead tourism growth in Sweden, focusing on the development of bleisure products. Even though numbers of tourism flows are not among the highest in Europe, they are growing thanks to cinema visibility, as happened some years ago in Norway thanks to the animation film “Frozen”.

Francesco Redi

President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.