2016 likely to be record year for Norway's tourism

Norwegian minister of trade and industry Monica Maeland said on Monday that 2016 is likely to be a new record year for the Nordic country's tourism industry.

"Norway is sought-after destination," Maeland was quoted as saying in a statement posted on the government's website.

Data from Statistics Norway show 1.7 million overnight stays at Norwegian hotels in October.

There has been a total increase of 5 percent in the number of overnight stays at hotels so far this year, according to the statement.

Norwegian tourism created values of 70 billion kroner (8.24 billion U.S. dollars) annually.

The Norwegian government is working on a white paper on tourism, which should be presented to the parliament in January.

The white paper on tourism will be first in the last 15 years and with it the government has a plan to increase the number of tourists in Norway and "take the bigger part of the international growth."

Major challenges for tourism industry in future are, among other things, availability, price and content, as well as the clarification of the state's role and the responsibility of the industry itself.

There are almost 140,000 employees in Norwegian tourism industry, which stands for 5 percent of value creation in Norwegian industry. Endit