Norway
Introduction
Travellers from Norway made 7.9 million outbound visits in 2024, with a total international tourism expenditure of US$17.6 billion.
In 2023, the UK welcomed 600,000 visits from Norway. During the travellers’ visits, their total expenditure was £446.7 million, with an average spend of £745 per visit.
Visitor characteristics
- There are considerably more male business visitors than female business visitors from Norway.
- 46% of all visitor spend comes from holiday trips.
- More than four-in-five holiday visitors from Norway are making a repeat trip to Britain (excluding British nationals).
- 99% of departing visitors say they were made to feel either ‘welcome’ or ‘very welcome’ in Britain.
Popular activities for this market
Dining in a restaurant.
Visiting a pub.
Going shopping.
For further information on activities and experiences for this market, please click here.
Explore the inbound data in full
Use our visualisations to see data from this market in greater depth and clarity. Compare annual statistics, and filter by age group, gender, trip duration and more. It includes seasonality, trip purpose and regional spread of visitors to UK destinations. These data are based on the International Passenger Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Perceptions of Britain in the Norwegian market
- One-in-four are keen on the idea of watching an English Premier League football match.
- The top three perceptions of Britain amongst Norwegian travellers in 2022 (MIDAS: A Global Report):
- It’s easy to get to.
- There are vibrant towns and cities to explore.
- It’s easy to get around once there.
Global context
Top-level statistics relating to tourism expenditure and popular destinations for this market. For greater detail on inbound tourism flows from this market to the UK, see our data visualisations.
| Measure | 2024 |
| International tourism expenditure (US$bn) | 17.6 |
| Global rank for international tourism expenditure | 22 |
| Number of outbound visits (m) | 7.9 |
| Most visited destination | Sweden |
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.
- Norwegians enjoy the fine dining experiences on offer in Britain.
The leisure and travel trade
- The Norwegian travel trade can be roughly split into four categories: charter operators, business travel/MICE, online operators and retail travel agents. Many companies offer a mix of these 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
The key routes and transport modes that connect this market with the UK.
| Measure | 2024 |
| Weekly aircraft departures | 192 |
| Weekly seat capacity | 30,889 |
| Airports with direct routes in Norway | 8 |
| Airports with direct routes in Britain | 13 |
- Virtually all visits from Norway 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 offer direct access from Norway.
- Of the total seat capacity on direct flights from Norway to the UK in 2024, 71% of these were on flights to London.
- Following the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled seat capacity on non-stop flights from Norway to the UK has recovered to 92% of 2019 levels in 2024.
- To see rates of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for Norway, click here.
- To see entry requirements for this market, click here.
Further resources
Where visitors from Norway to the UK reside in their own country.xlsx
Where visitors from Norway to the UK reside in their own country
How we source this information
We work with a number of data sources to provide a rich and insightful picture of our key inbound source markets. This includes, but is not limited to, data provided by Oxford Economics, the UNWTO, Apex, Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and from our own surveys and ad-hoc research. The largest share of these data comes from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) by the ONS.
Visit our About the International Passenger Survey page for more information on how this data is collected and analysed.
