– It is heading towards record season. The only bottleneck is the lack of labor, says Steinar Bruheim, daily camper in the Jostedalen glacier guide team. At Nigardsbreen in Sogn, Bruheim and his colleagues live on a busy summer. Since May, they have daily sent fully booked groups on the blue ice, and they have all been forced to reject tourists. – If we had more drivers, we could have had more on the glacier. Especially those who have wanted a private driver, we have had to say no to, says Bruheim. Positive ripple effects In the future, it is not only Germans, Dutch and Americans who want the glacier. Soon the Norwegians also start to move, and there have been more of them. First came the corona pandemic and “opened Norwegian eyes to their own countries”, and then came the passport crisis. At present, around 80,000 applications for passports are expected to be seen in production, the Norwegian Police Directorate states. – This year, the passport crisis may mean that more people will travel more in their own countries, says Audun Pettersen, industry director for tourism in Virke. Delivery time for passports is now six weeks plus postage. The delivery time for ID cards is two weeks plus postage. – Long passport queues in Norway can have positive ripple effects for tourism in Western Norway, believes Marita Lindvik in Visit Nordfjord. More well Norway A new survey shows that eight out of ten plan a summer holiday year. Nearly seven out of ten plan to holiday in Norway. Norway: – One might think that most people will go abroad this year since one has not had the opportunity to do so for a very long time, but that is not the case, says Kristin Krohn Devold in NHO Reiseliv. Photo: Per-Ivar Kvalsvik / news It is significantly higher than before the corona pandemic hit in 2019. Then 58 percent answered the same. – It can come from uncertain links to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, increased costs and passport trouble, says Kristin Krohn Devold, CEO of NHO Reiseliv. She adds that it is “very possible that we see the beginning of a lasting trend where fewer people travel abroad and more people choose short-distance holidays back home in Norway”. No shame to turn around Last week, foreign travelers met with the message that there is “no shame in turning around” at Norwegian airports and railway stations. The campaign is signed by the Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT), which will make more people “think about Norwegian summer”. CAMPAIGN: At Norwegian airports and train stations, travelers are greeted by advertising posters with the encouragement “no shame in turning around”. The campaign is paid for by DNT to get more people to holiday in Norway. Photo: news – We also get posters at the airport in Alicante, says Andreas Blaauw-Hval in DNT. In Luster, Bruheim believes that the record of 14,000 glacier tourists in 2016 may be about to fall. – In addition to the increase in international tourism, which we will probably see, the effect of the corona pandemic and the passport crisis can give us a busy summer with a lot of people, he concludes.
ttn-69
The passport crisis can give a boost to the Norwegian holiday – news Vestland
