Local tour ope­ra­tors in Lon­gye­ar­by­en have to deal with los­ses of 65 % in avera­ge due to coro­na. For some, the last year has been a total loss, some com­pa­nies and indi­vi­du­als would be hap­py to have a remai­ning tur­no­ver of 35 %. Others have some boo­kings by tou­rists coming from main­land Nor­way, but also the­se don’t come in num­bers com­pa­ra­ble to pre­vious years. The­re is no inter­na­tio­nal tou­rism due to the cur­rent tra­vel rest­ric­tions. It remains to be seen when things real­ly get bet­ter.

Win­ter tou­rism in Spits­ber­gen:
will lar­gey be a loss this year – again.

At least, local tour ope­ra­tors can now expect 40 mil­li­on kro­ner (3.9 mil­li­on Euro) as public sup­port sup­port from Oslo. It is too ear­ly to say if all com­pa­nies will sur­vi­ve the cur­rent cri­sis even con­side­ring this new finan­cial aid. The upco­ming win­ter sea­son, nor­mal­ly pea­king in March and April, will most­ly not hap­pen this year.