– There is a fairly large degree of uncertainty. Now it should have been full of people from Switzerland, but they did not get into the country, says Tonny Mathiassen.
Together with his wife Mira Mathiassen, he runs The Glacier in Jøkelfjord in Kvænangen. The hosts show off the exclusive hotel rooms they have built up; large insulated tents shaped like igloos in the terrain.
– In the walls here, there are seven centimeters of insulation and air conditioning, which ensures a nice temperature in the summer, Tonny Mathiassen explains.
– EXCITED: Tonny and Mira Mathiassen at The Glacier hope for foreign tourists to Jøkelfjord in Kvænangen this summer. Photo: Arne Rovick / TV 2
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Last year they had to close only two weeks after the opening, but it was still a usable summer. Now they are very excited about how this year’s tourist season will turn out, especially considering the foreign guests.
– We see that people are reluctant now. “Local foreigners” who find and Swedes we are more confident will come. But those who fly up here we are more uncertain.
Bet on late summer
Kristin Krohn Devold, CEO of NHO Reiseliv, hopes that foreign tourists can largely return at the end of the summer.
– The expectations are that we will get a number of foreign guests to Norway in August and September. August is the main holiday month in Europe, and Norway is a country with plenty of space, little infection and beautiful nature, says Devold.
At the same time, she asks that the entry routines be easy to relate to.
– We must make sure that Gardermoen and the other border crossings do not become unnecessarily rigid, so that people do not have the strength to come here. We must have as many rules as possible as the rest of the EU, says Devold.
Live in hope
Even though the foreign tourists are currently absent, the owners of The Glaciers in Jøkelfjord choose to be cautiously optimistic.
– We hope there will be an improvement from last year and are cautiously optimistic. If we can speculate with foreign tourists on top of the Norwegians, then we hope there will be an increase compared to last summer, the couple says.
However, when the foreign tourists disappeared, a whole new market emerged.
– We discovered a completely new target group: Parents of small children who need to breathe on the ground and get away from the kids for a weekend. We had not imagined that group, but it became quite large, Tonny and Mira say.
They do not hide the fact that they run tourism in the middle of the wilderness, but have received good help from a traveling emperor 130 years ago.
– Emperor Wilhelm was a great friend of Norway. He spent the first seven years of his reign traveling in Norway, and he was the world’s first travel blogger and wrote some fantastic travel posts from Jøkelfjord. So we have had free advertising on the German market since 1890, says Tonny.
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