Norway

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) was suspended on 16 March 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic until the start of 2021. The ONS have made every effort to produce high-quality estimates for the periods when IPS data is not being collected but have not been able to produce a full set of results. See the 2020 inbound page for more information.

The 2021 data is ‘incomplete’ as Eurotunnel data was unavailable for the entire year. In addition, interviewing at Dover restarted from Q3 2021 and pseudo records for the Irish land border were also removed in 2021. More info can be found on the 2021 inbound page.

For 2022, Eurotunnel data was also unavailable for the first half of the year. Interviewing at Eurostar was not affected by Covid-19 restrictions in 2021 or the first half of 2022. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022. The latest data can be found on the monthly and quarterly pages.

Due to the above, the latest full year IPS data below is from 2019.

Visitor characteristics

There are considerably more male than female visitors from Norway for business trips
46% of all visitor spend comes courtesy of visiting for a holiday
More than four-in-five holiday visitors from Norway are making a repeat trip to Britain (excluding British nationals)
99% of departing visitors say they were made to feel either 'welcome' or ‘very welcome' in Britain

Popular activities

Dining in a restaurant

Visited a Pub

Went Shopping

Global context


Measure	2019
International tourism expenditure (US$bn)	16.5
Global rank for international tourism expenditure	22
Number of outbound visits (m)	10.3
Most visited destination	Sweden

Key demographic and economic data


Measure	2022
Population (m)	5.5
GDP per capita PPP (US$)	101,869
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)	1.6
Annual GDP growth (%)	2.5

Market Snapshot Norway (PDF, 904KB)

Norway Market Profile (PDF, 2.81MB)

Norway Aviation Profile (PDF, 510KB)

Norway COVID-19 Travel Sentiment (PDF, 476KB, Published April 2022)

Find out where visitors from Norway to the UK reside in their own country (Excel, 176KB, Published 2018)

Read about the preferences of Europeans towards tourism (PDF, 1.65MB, Published March 2015)

Please note that the reports below have not been updated with the 2009-2018 revised IPS data. For more information, please visit about the international passenger survey

Find out what are perceived barriers to exploring beyond London for Norwegians (PDF, 904KB, Published July 2013)

Exchange rate

1 GBP = 12.8242 NOK

As of 22 March 2023

Retrieved from the Bank of England

Inbound visits to Britain from Norway

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Touch the data points to see the values.

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Number of visits

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Total expenditure (GBP)

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Total nights spent

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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What Norwegians think about Britain

The cultural product or service that Norwegians most highly associate with being produced in Britain is pop videos
38% believe that a potential visit to Britain would be ‘exciting’
While highly associated with culture and heritage attributes, France is more closely linked with such measures than is Britain
Britain is more strongly associated with the statement ‘is good for High Street shopping’ than are leading competitors
Britain is not seen as a ‘romantic’ or ‘luxurious’ destination by Norwegians
One-in-four are keen on the idea of watching an English Premier League football match
Leading competitor destinations are more closely associated with the statement ‘food and drink is good value for money’ than is Britain
However, a week long holiday in Britain is expected to be less expensive than an equivalent holiday in leading competitor destinations such as France and Italy

Caring for visitors

Norwegians are very familiar with British culture, in particular Premier League football and British TV programmes
Cleanliness in accommodation is of importance to visitors from Norway
While there are many regional dialects in Norway, English is widely understood
Visitors from Norway are more likely than average to use a credit card while in Britain

The leisure & travel trade

The Norwegian trade can be roughly split into four categories of charter operators, business travel/MICE, online operators and retail travel agents with many companies offering a mix of the four services
The key centres for the travel trade are Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim
There is no distinct planning cycle so it is possible to do business year-round

Access to Britain from Norway


Measure	2022
Weekly aircraft departures	172
Weekly seat capacity	27,165
Airports with direct routes in Norway	6
Airports with direct routes in Britain	9

Virtually all visits to Britain are by air
The bulk of airline seat capacity is from Oslo to London although numerous airports in Scotland and other parts of England also enjoy direct access from Norway
In 2022, there were 172 weekly departures with an average seat capacity of 27,165
Following the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled seat capacity in 2022 from Norway to the UK recovered to 81% of 2019 levels
The current rate of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for Norway is £13

Markets

Norway