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Swedish tourists unwelcome in Denmark and Norway: poll

The Local Denmark
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Swedish tourists unwelcome in Denmark and Norway: poll
A Swedish tourist flies the flag on a visit to Copenhagen in happier times. Photo: Keld Navntoft/Ritzau Scanpix

People living in Denmark and Norway are more opposed to receiving tourists from neighbouring Sweden than they are to those from any other country in Europe -- underlining the blow Covid-19 has dealt to Scandinavian solidarity.

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According to the new Coronavirus and Tourism survey from the polling company YouGov, 73 percent of Norwegians and 61 percent of Danes opposed quarantine-free entry to Swedish tourists. 
 
Indeed, the two countries' citizens were only slightly less suspicious of their Swedish neighbours than they were of tourists from the United States, who were opposed by 77 percent and 69 percent of respondents, respectively. 
 
"While Scandinavians are still reluctant to allow in British tourists, they are more preoccupied by Swedish holidaymakers," wrote Matthew Smith, the company's lead data journalist, in a press release. 
 
"Sweden," he wrote, "is unique among developed countries for having not instituted a coronavirus lockdown, and the consequently higher case rates are clearly making its neighbours nervous." 
 
The public opposition may part explain why the governments of both Denmark and Norway are still refusing to allow most Swedish tourists into the country.
 
Both countries have said they will allow entry to Swedish tourists from regions where the rate of coronavirus infections is sufficiently low, with Denmark allowing tourists from Västerbotten, Kronoberg and Blekinge, and Norway judging that infection rates are too high in every region of Sweden. 
 
While Denmark has otherwise opened up to tourists from every country in the European Union apart from Portugal, Norway only plans to open up to tourists from outside the Nordic nations from July 15th, with a list of 'safe' countries to be published on Friday July 10th. 
 
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Even people from Britain, where the death rate from coronavirus has been higher than in Sweden, oppose Swedish tourists, with 53 percent telling the pollster that they were against allowing Swedish tourists to come to the UK without quarantine, more than opposed allowing entry to any other European country. 
 
It is perhaps fortunate that Swedes are anyway relatively nervous about travelling, with 44 percent saying they would not want to go on holiday to Norway because of Covid-19, and 45 percent saying they would not want to go on holiday to Denmark. 
 
The next least welcome tourists from the perspective of Danes and Norwegians were British ones, which were opposed by 67 percent and 55 percent. 
 
The poll was based on a weighted sample of citizens of ten countries, including 1,006 from Norway, 1,023 from Denmark and 1,012 from Sweden. 

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