Broads abroad admiring a
Swedish sunset at 10:30 PM
This trip is flying by, and we can’t get enough from our Business in Scandinavia experiences. We just left Stockholm, Sweden and we are sad to say goodbye. The city was vibrant and alive. We experienced unusually good weather for the city. We had mostly sunny days with highs of 80s, when the average is usually in the 60’s. We stayed at the Hilton, which was located near Old Town. The hotel customer service was similar to what we experienced in Gothenburg, however this hotel was larger then the previous one. The Hilton offered more amenities such as conference rooms, and a larger gym. We noticed that at this hotel there were more tour groups, and there appeared to be a Spotify conference going on during our stay. With a larger hotel like this we saw more formalities as well. For example, at breakfast there was a hostess and they asked us for our hotel number. In Gothenburg we were not asked once for our room number. Since Stockholm is a main city for tourism in Sweden there were definately more crowds and within the city and our the hotel. The image below will show you just how big tourism is in Stockholm.
In Addition, Stockholm’s GDP makes up one third of the Swedish economy and thereby acts as a growth engine for the whole country. Sweden acts as a hub for many major companies such as Ericsson, Spotify and H&M. The city of Stockholm is known for its innovation, technology, availability of capital and quality of life. The city of Stockholm is considered the seventh most successful city in the world according to a recent publication (Cities of Opportunities, 2014) by PWC.
According to the Swedish Trade & Invest Council, the number of occupied hotel rooms in the city of 
Stockholm increased by 56% between 2004 and 2014, reaching 4.7 million rooms annually in 2014. The average annual growth rate assignable to the same period amounted to 4.6%. During the same period, available rooms grew by 3.8% per year, leading to an increase in the occupancy rate of 4.7 percentage points. The ADR has increased by an average rate of 1.8% per year, outperforming the overall inflation index for the same period by 0.6 percentage points.
The number of foreign visitors grew by 52% between 2004 and 2014 and the segment is anticipated to increase further, with growth coming mainly from Europe, the US and emerging markets such as China and India.
Something we found unique about our Hilton Hotel in Stockholm was that the gym for Hilton guests was a full service gym that locals could use as well. They offered fitness classes which was a nice option for guests and locals. This takes us to one of our observations of the country. The majority of people we saw in Sweden were in fairly good shape. According to the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet), 45% of Swedes between 7 and 70 years old exercise more than twice a week. In England on the other hand, 80% of the population fail to exercise at least 12 times in a month, according to a Bristol University study. While eating in a restaurant, we noticed these giant chocolate balls we saw at one of the cafes, we asked what they were and the server sai they were raw truffles. She also told us that the raw items were a big trend in Sweden. Not only is the fitness culture important, but Swedes also take Health Care very seriously. The Swedish health care system is mainly government-funded, although private health care also exists. The health care system in Sweden is financed mostly.
