Tourists Mark Robust Return to Danish Accommodation Spots, Spending 4.2 Million Nights in July Alone
Domestic tourism, which kept alive the sector in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic, has started dimming down, while international visitors made a convincing comeback in July, with 2.6 million overnight stays being recorded by those.
According to Statistics Denmark, a total of 4.2 million overnight stays were recorded in Denmark throughout July, with 2.6 million nights spent by foreign tourists and 1.6 million from domestic tourists, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
More specifically, two million nights were spent in Danish holiday homes by German nationals and another 600,000 from Norwegians – representing the most overnight stays recorded by international tourists since 2019.
While tourists marked their return to Denmark, Danes left to spend their vacations elsewhere, as the number of domestic nights spent dropped significantly in July of 2022. In detail, 1.6 million domestic overnight stays were recorded – down by 46 per cent from the corresponding time in 2022. However, the number of Danish overnight stays remains higher than it was before the pre-pandemic levels.
As per the number of nights recorded since the year began, the number of overnight stays in the country hit its highest record, despite July having fewer overnight stays than in the previous years. In total, 13.2 million overnight stays were recorded for the January-July period, of which 4.5 million were local and 8.7 million were international tourists.
However, fewer bookings for overnight stays have been recorded and continue to be evident in 2022, as 266,800 houses were booked for the rest of the year, representing a seven per cent decline compared to 2021. Bookings of German tourists have dropped by three per cent, while those from locals have dropped by 39 per cent.
“The first half of 2022 offered a total of DKK 15.5 million [€2 million] overnight stays in hotels, holiday centres, hostels, campsites, and in marinas against DKK 8.0 million [€1 million] overnight stays in the first half of 2021. Thus, the number of overnight stays in the first six months of the year has almost doubled compared to the same period in 2021,” the authority explains.
The western municipalities of Ringkøbing-Skjern and Varde had, respectively, 620,100 and 596,400 overnight stays, representing the most overnight stays for July.
The second region to follow was the sunny island of Bornholm with 221,200 overnight stays, and the North Jutland municipalities Jammerbugt and Hjørring with 208,400 and 203,900 nights, respectively. These five municipalities together represent almost half of the holiday home accommodation in the country.
