The National Tourism Strategy 2030 - Big impact, small footprint was published in 2021 and provides the long-term strategy set and monitored by Innovation Norway. The Strategy sets out 23 policy measures to ensure the development of a more sustainable and profitable tourism sector by 2030 to assist post‑pandemic recovery and to respond to changing tourism trends. The goals and targets for the Strategy include:
Increasing value creation and helping create jobs in Norway by increasing the export value of consumption by NOK 20 billion by 2030, increasing the number of tourism-related jobs in Norway by 25% by 2030.
Supporting Norway to become a low-emissions society by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the local tourist industry by 50% by 2030 and reducing the carbon footprint resulting from visitors’ transport to/from/around Norway by 10% a year, using 2019 as a base.
Supporting the creation of attractive local communities and happy residents.
Delivering customer value that customers are willing to pay more for and make repeat purchases to increase consumption by 25% by 2030.
A new Roadmap for the Tourism Industry was presented by the Ministry in February 2024. The Roadmap outlines the government's progress and sets three main ambitions: increasing profitability, promoting sustainability, and supporting local communities. It includes 43 initiatives aimed at enhancing the sector's competitiveness, reducing its environmental impact, and developing sustainable destinations and strategic international marketing. The Roadmap was informed by input from industry organisations, the Sami Parliament, the National Tourism Strategy 2030 and the Destinations Committee's report (see box below). These sources provided valuable insights and recommendations for shaping a more sustainable and attractive tourism industry in Norway.
To address long-term challenges of the Norwegian Tourism sector, such as a low share of high value-added tourism products, strong seasonality, a lack of co-operation between destinations, and, more recently, overtourism in certain destinations, the government is developing several measures, led by Re-start Reiseliv 2021-24 – a programme to help tourism rebuild post-pandemic. It focuses on increased resources for product development, marketing and recruitment, including through:
Reiseliv 2030 – a strategy group which will provide proposals on prioritised research and innovation activities to make the tourism sector less seasonal, increase value creation and contribute to the green transition. The strategy group submitted its final report to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries in June 2024.
The development of a climate-smart digital calculator that links data on CO2 emissions from transportation, and tourism expenditure from the various tourist markets. The goal is to permit informed strategic choices by tourism stakeholders so the sector can meet the target of a 10% annual reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions from commercial tourism activity. The project was initiated in 2022 and the tool will be available to all parts of Norwegian tourism.
Innovation Norway was commissioned by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries to formulate a proposal for a national recognition scheme for local and regional guides, tour leaders and mountain guides, in co-operation with outdoor organisations. The proposal was submitted to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries in December 2023, and is now being assessed and followed up.
