Tou­rism in Spits­ber­gen: sta­ble sin­ce 5-6 years

Num­bers in tou­rism have been rather sta­ble in Spits­ber­gen for the latest 5-6 years, if not decre­asing. The num­ber of over­nights has varied litt­le, having been bet­ween 83,000 and 89,000 for 6 years. The year that has seen the lar­gest num­ber of pas­sen­gers on big over­se­as crui­se ships was 2007 with 33,000 who came this way. Sin­ce then, num­bers have drop­ped down to 24,000 in 2011. Num­bers of pas­sen­gers who came to see Spits­ber­gen on smal­ler expe­di­ti­on crui­se ships have increased slight­ly.

The num­bers within land-based ways of tou­rism are eit­her more or less sta­ble or decre­asing. From 1997 to 2011, bet­ween 400 and 750 per­sons have been tra­vel­ling indi­vi­du­al­ly out­side admi­nis­tra­ti­on area 10 (more or less near the sett­le­ments, whe­re regis­tra­ti­on is not com­pul­so­ry), but no trend can be seen. Snow scoo­ter tou­rism is sta­ble, whe­re­as non-moto­ri­zed win­ter tou­rism such as ski tours and dog sled­ging are on the decrease, pos­si­bly as some spe­cia­li­zed local ope­ra­tors have down­si­zed or stop­ped their rele­vant acti­vi­ties.

Sources: Rei­se­livs­sta­tis­tikk 2011, Sys­sel­man­nen.

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