Sweden
Visitor characteristics
- Visitors come from a broad range of age groups and there are equal numbers of male and female leisure visitors
- Three-in-four holiday visitors are making a repeat trip to Britain
- A significant proportion of visitors live in or around Stockholm
- 88% of departing visitors say they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely likely’ to recommend Britain for a holiday
Popular activities
Sightseeing of Famous Buildings/ Monuments
Visited a Pub
Went Shopping
Global context
| Measure | 2015 |
|---|---|
| International tourism expenditure (US$bn) | 16.9 |
| Global rank for international tourism expenditure | 18 |
| Number of outbound visits (m) | 13.9 |
| Most visited destination | Spain |
Key demographic and economic data
| Measure | 2015 |
|---|---|
| Population (m) | 9.8 |
| GDP per capita (US$) | 50,306 |
| Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%) | 1.8 |
| Annual average GDP growth in the past year (%) | 3.9 |
Inbound visits to Britain
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Access to Britain from Sweden
| Measure | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Weekly aircraft departures | 202 |
| Weekly seat capacity | 33,363 |
| Airports with direct routes in Sweden | 4 |
| Airports with direct routes in Britain | 5 |
- The majority of visits to Britain from Sweden are made by air
- The bulk of seat capacity serves the Stockholm to London corridor
- Four airlines operate virtually all capacity between Sweden and Britain
- Copenhagen in Denmark is also a popular gateway to the UK from the South of Sweden
- Visitors departing Britain to travel home to Sweden by air are charged £13 in Air Passenger Duty if travelling in economy class
(2016 data, excludes routes to Cambridge and from Malmo and Ostersund)
What Swedes think about Britain
- Swedes are more upbeat than average in their opinion regarding how welcome Britain is, but do not hold Britain in high regard for scenic natural beauty
- The cultural product Swedes most strongly associate with Britain is music
- Of importance to Swedes when thinking about holiday destinations are the chance to have ‘fun and laughter’ and ‘enjoy the beauty of the landscape’ with the US seen as the ‘best place’ to get the former and Australia and Italy the latter
- Swedes are more likely to nominate Britain as the best place to ‘meet the locals’ then they are other leading destinations
- 40% of Swedes say they would like to spend a night in a Scottish castle
- Swedes reckon that a week long holiday in both France and Italy would be more expensive than a week in Britain
Caring for visitors
- Swedes expect good-value accommodation and will use budget acommodation - they will expect en-suite facilities and wooden/tiled floors
- Swedes will take more notice of environmental credentials than visitors from many other markets
- Visitors from Sweden are more likely than the average visitor to use a credit card to pay for goods and services in Britain
The leisure & travel trade
- The Swedish 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 travel trade are Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo
- There is no distinct planning cycle so it is possible to do business in Sweden throughout the year
Downloads
Sweden market profile
Read about the preferences of Europeans towards tourism. Published March 2015
Find out where visitors from Sweden to the UK reside in their own country. Published 2011
Exchange rate
1 GBP = 11.0598 SEK
As of 22 June 2017
Retrieved from the Bank of England
