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Sweden to spend millions on tourist destinations

Published: 5 Jun 12 09:57 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41258/20120605/

Five Swedish locations will share over 60 million kronor ($8.4 million) to be turned into well rounded tourist destinations in a government effort to boost the Swedish tourist industry.

“The tourist industry is complex. Measures need to be taken develop new and existing destinations for tourists from near and far, as well as establishing a close cooperation between private and public actors, “ wrote minister for enterprise Annie Lööf and the secretary general of the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket), Christina Lugnet in an opinion piece in newspaper Dagens Industri (DI).

40 Swedish locations competed to take part in the scheme, before ultimately five were chosen; namely Bohuslän County, Kiruna in the very north, Vimmerby in Småland, the ski resort Åre in central Sweden and the Stockholm archipelago.

The destinations will share a total of 60 million kronor allocated by the government for this purpose.

A visit to any of these four locations, pilot destinations in the scheme, will be turned into a “top notch overall experience” over a period of five years, according to Lööf and Lugnet.

“The five chosen destinations all have the potential to grow on an international market, while at the same time being very different from each other. They are located in various parts of the country and differ in size,” wrote Lööf and Lugnet.

16.7 million foreign tourists visited Sweden in 2011 and the goal of the tourist industry is to reach a turnover of 500 billion kronor and employ some 300,000 people; twice as many as today, by 2020.

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10:25 June 5, 2012 by Twiceshy
Some of these tourist destination are privately managed, no?

So why are they getting free money from the government, or am I missing something?
10:37 June 5, 2012 by Cephalectomy
if swedes dont get less rude, and more polite and helpful to foreigners this will not help
11:23 June 5, 2012 by SimonDMontfort
I reckon the biggest stumbling block to increasing foreign tourism to Sweden (at the moment) is the high value of the kronor.
12:24 June 5, 2012 by eurobloke
@SimonDMonfort has partly hit the nail on its head. With the kronor being so strong currently around 10:50 kr to GBP 1, rather then ~14:- to the GBP. It has made the country rather pricey. Think along the lines of it costs £10,50 rather then £7,50 to go a see the Vasa ship in Djurgården, or the dagens rätt in the local café being £15,- rather the £9,50.
12:45 June 5, 2012 by StockholmSam
Sorry, but 60 000 000 kronor split five ways works out to 12 000 000 kronor ($1.68 million) which will not help much. It is a pittance investment. That much money MIGHT buy a house in my neighborhood. I do not see it helping much especially since tourist locations are usually expensive areas.
13:56 June 5, 2012 by rtharper
Must be a nice neighbourhood =p The money isn't necessarily to fund an entire project, but perhaps to contribute to one. As someone said, some of these are privately managed. I doubt the government is just going to buy them a new facility...
13:56 June 5, 2012 by libertarianism
Re 5, Does the commi bus tour your hood?
15:45 June 5, 2012 by Mb 65
The high value of the Krona and overly priced food are what puts tourists off.
15:51 June 5, 2012 by StockholmSam
The Commi bus tours my garage. And they are in awe of it. :-P

But seriously, if we divide the 12 000 000 kronor further among six projects in a given tourist location, that would be 2 000 000 kronor per initiative. I suppose that $280 000 is a nice enough investment in a viking hubcap museum after all.
16:09 June 5, 2012 by Svensksmith
Maybe they can put in a few toliets.
20:34 June 5, 2012 by johan rebel
60m kr is a drop in the ocean.

Sweden will never be a top tourist destination, the climate is not in its favor, and it lacks strong drawcards. Most people don't even know that Sweden and Switzerland are different countries.

The very first thing Sweden should do to increase its appeal is to understand that the tourist season does not coincide with the local school summer vacation. If you visit in May, you had better not stray to far from Stockholm.
02:47 June 6, 2012 by halvnilsson
Could the Swedish government lower the effing cost of visiting Sweden? You have to either be a grungy backpacker sleeping (and getting raped) on park benches or a member of the 1% to go.
10:48 June 6, 2012 by uunbeliever
Vimmerby? Are you serious? Just what it needs, another tourist location "fun park" with another author theme. Strindberg fun land anyone? Ha ha ha
17:49 June 6, 2012 by Tarc the Mexan
Actually, a Strindberg themed amusement park would be awesome. Or maybe a Lars Norén one.
17:44 June 9, 2012 by Liziwiz
They want tourists ? Clean up the lakes and get the fish farms out! The lakes of Dalsland and Varmland are polluted by fish farms, owned by a Finnish company, who employ a handful of people, export all the fish and pay no taxes in Sweden. Are the authorities interested ? No they are not. Check out the surface oil, the awful smell, the lakeside shanty towns, the lake bed meters deep in fish faeces and uneaten fish feed pellets and see if you want to come for a holiday on the Dalsland Canal System. Once the lake system has been destroyed Sweden can apply for an EU grant to clean them up and get an Eco 'brownie point'- Shame on you Sweden!
08:04 June 11, 2012 by cablues
Sweden would do well to target the millions of American descendants of Swedish emigrants who would like to visit Sweden and their ancestral roots. I think the Swedish tourism board could spend the money to develop history centers like the Svenska Emigrantinstitutet in Växjö in other places in Sweden like Vimmerby. I know a lot of Americans who would like to visit their ancestral homelands but all they know how to do is book travel to Stockholm.
19:00 June 11, 2012 by Tarc the Mexan
Yeah have the fat Americans visit the Lars Norén theme park.
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