User:DNorlund/sandbox

Background

Tourism in Sweden has a growing impact on Sweden’s economy, contributing 405.44 billion Krona to the GDP. This growth has been consistently growing at a rate of approximately 3.34% annually with its last recording in 2016. While tourism is not the largest contributor to the Swedish GDP, it does have a constant growing impact on the 4.21 trillion Kr GDP.

Sweden has a much milder climate than other countries of similar high latitude. Summer temperatures in Sweden reach an average of 13 to 17 degrees Celsius, winter temperatures can reach as low as -30 degrees Celsius. Through out most of Sweden, snow covers the ground from November to April.

Sweden is covered in by thousands of lakes and other sources of freshwater. In northern parts of Sweden mountains and rolling hills cover the landscape with small villages few and far between. In the southern parts of Sweden more trees can be found and more densely populated cities.

History

The History of Sweden has roots that date back to approximately 5,000 BC with the evidence of petroglyphs depicting a civilization of people along with animals both wild and domestic. Sweden was governmentally unorganized until the first millennium of the turn of the century, in which the Kings of Uppsala ruled most of the land of Sweden. After civil wars and other conflicts in the 16th century, Sweden was able to gain its own independence and was ruled by Gustav Vasa. Rule over Sweden was often fought over by Norway and Denmark on either side of Sweden. Sweden was able to retain its independence and slowly became a great power both economically and in military strength. Sweden was involved in many wars, fighting over land such as Finland, and also over farmlands of different varieties of crop. During both World War one and two, Sweden remained a neutral state and was one of the first non-participants of WWII to join the United Nations. Sweden also remained neutral in the Cold-War however it did not enter into the NATO alliance. Tourism of historic locations is one of the many possibilities one could visit Sweden as a tourist.

People

Population. According to a survey completed in January of 2018, the most current population count for Sweden is 10,128,320 persons. The population of Sweden has been gradually increasing over the last decade with this last years population increasing by approximately 1.2%.

Government. Sweden is governed by a Parliamentary democracy, this allows for the people to be in control of the government and how it is to be run. The Riksdag, or the Parliament makes the decisions based off the Swedish constitution. Sweden's head of state is the Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven who has been in office since 2014. Sweden holds an election every four years to decide the next PM. Sweden also has a King and royal family, The King is mostly a figurehead who hold little to no political power. The current King is Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Gustaf has been the King of Sweden since 15 September 1973 after the death of his Grandfather. A law enacted by King Gustaf declared that regardless of gender, the first born child of the king would be the heir to the throne. This meant that his first born child, Princess Victoria, would be the Crowned Princess Victoria and heir to the throne upon his death.

Economy. Sweden's economy, like its population, is progressively increasing at an average of 3.4% per year over the last three documented years. The most current GDP of Sweden reached 4,522,751,590,000.00 Krona, which is the currency used in Sweden. Of that 4.5 Trillion Kr, 405.4 Billion is from the tourism industry. Tourism is not the biggest contributor to the Swedish GDP, but it does have a positive impact on it. The Economy of Sweden is greatly influenced by their main exports of Hydro power, timber, iron, as well as vehicles and pharmaceuticals. In the United States a familiar export of Sweden is that of IKEA, a home furnishing store.

Language. The official language of Sweden is Swedish or Svenska which is Swedish for the word Swedish. The Swedish government officially recognizes five minority languages in Sweden: Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romani, and Yiddish. Each of these minority languages has many thousand speakers of each language living in Sweden. The Swedish language comes from Germanic roots with influence of both Dutch and Norwegian languages. As far as English, it is not a officially recognized minority language though many Swedish people speak English. In 2009 Sweden officially recognized Swedish as the national language of Sweden in an effort to preserve the language among the populous. As an English speaking tourist visiting Sweden, way finding and direction inquiries could be resolved in English, this could help tourists who chose not to use a tour guide and/or translator.

Religion. The largest religion found in Sweden is Christianity, the Church of Sweden, though no longer associated with Sweden due to separation of church and state, is the main denomination of Christianity found in Sweden. As more culturally diverse individuals migrate to Sweden, more religious background is introduced increasing religious diversity in Sweden. Many Swedes are self claimed non-religious, though some may have official ties to the Church of Sweden. Sweden's religious ties began with Nordic Gods and eventually that was converted into Christianity in 1164 by Catholic Missionaries.

Food/Diet. Many may know Sweden for their Swedish Meatballs, Sweden has a well rounded diet and cuisine of different meat and bread dishes. Sweden has a broad selection of foods from the traditional to fast food and everything in between. Depending on the consumers taste buds, one could find varying staple dishes such as fish and shell fish along with lingonberry jam which is said to "Go with anything" as stated by Sweden.se the country's official web-page.

Customs. In Sweden it is common to great all genders and ages with a handshake, Swedish people generally do not embrace upon first contact or in the view of the public. Physical touch is less common as a sign of affection unless the host is well known by the visitor. Men and Women are treated equally and should not feel ashamed for either person paying for a meal, giving or receiving a gift. General respect should be shown to all and it will be returned, eye contact when speaking to another is considered to be a sign of respect. It is also a common courtesy to remove shoes when entering a home.

Holidays. Sweden has many holidays that are separated into religious and non-religious celebrations. Commonly shared Non-Religious holidays are New Years (Jan 1), May day (May 1, Labor day), Sweden National Day (June 6), Midsummer's Eve (June 24). Some Religious holidays recognized in Sweden are Good Friday (March 25), Easter Monday (March 27), Ascension Day (May 5), Christmas Eve & Day (December 24, 25). Some holidays in Sweden are accompanied by family gatherings and feasts. A popular tourist holiday is Sweden National day, this holiday is for pride of Sweden and celebrating cultural heritage.

Tourism

Visa/ Entry Requirements. According to the United States Department of State, entry into Sweden only requires a valid passport of at least six months of validity left. No Visa is required for a stay less than 90 days as Sweden is part of the Schengen agreement which allows travel to certain countries up to 90 days for tourist or business reasons. A return ticket and financial stability is also required for entry as it is with other countries in the Schengen agreement.

Currency. Although Sweden is a member of the European Union, the official currency of Sweden is the Krona. The current conversion rates for the Swedish Krona are: 1 SEK (Swedish Krona)= 0.11 USD, 0.09 EURO, 0.08 GBP, 0.15 CAD, 12.70 JPY. Sweden is becoming a monetarily paperless society, credit cards are commonly used in day to day transactions. Sweden is starting to remove older banknotes from circulation as less people use paper money.

Niche markets. There are multiple reasons for a tourist to visit Sweden these include: environmental tourism including 30 national parks, gastronomic tourism including crayfish feasts and Swedish meatballs, historic tourism of either the Viking/Birka era, War history, Castles and Flora and Fauna. Each of these individual markets can be broken down further each being a primary attraction for some tourists. In the field of Environmental Tourism one could travel to the northern parts of Sweden to see the aurora borealis, or to the south to visit the flat lands that to some tourists may not seem like Sweden as they may know it. Sweden has a similar landscape like that of its neighboring countries, though it has it own unique topography. Along with Environmental would include the Flora and Fauna unique to Sweden. A growing tourist attraction regarding Sweden's fauna is Reindeer sighting and sleigh rides pulled by reindeer. In Jukkasjärvi, the world's first Icehotel (Jukkasjärvi) is built every year out of snow and ice. The hotel asks artists to come and design rooms for guest to stay in, the hotel offers both warm and cold rooms for guest to experience.

Infrastructure. There are around 300 different accommodations for tourists to chose from when staying in Sweden. These Accommodations include Hotels, Hostels and Airbnb, and it continually grows to provide an adequate infrastructure to visitors. In 2018, a tourist could expect to pay between 1,000 Kr-1,500 Kr a night for a hotel, 650-1,000 Kr a night for a Bed & Breakfast, and 650 Kr is the average price for an Airbnb. Sweden touring infrastructure caters to the different types of tourists from psychocentrics to allocentrics. There are opportunities for travelers to explore on their own, Sweden's policy on this is "Leave it the way you found it" and the Environmental Protection Agency (Sweden) also has a saying regarding public access which is "Don't disturb, Don't destroy".

Transportation. Sweden's transportation options are not limited to city buses, ferries, or taxis. Uber is making its mark in Stockholm as a popular transportation option along with other competing ride-sharing companies. It is also common to use bicycles in the larger cities to help reduce congestion and pollution. Additionally, a person could use domestic flights as a mean of transport throughout Sweden. Sweden also offers rail transportation within cities as well for inter-city travel.The Swedish rail system is called SJ; it has slower-speed trains throughout the country and faster X 2000 trains connecting the major cities. Connection by rail is possible to Norway and Denmark; connections to Finland are by bus, due to rail gauge differences. It's possible to take Silja and Viking Line boats from Stockholm to Helsinki (Finland), Rostock (Germany) or Mariehamn on the Åland islands.

Attractions. There are multiple "must see" attractions in Sweden, TripAdvisor lists many of the more popular attractions in different categories with their popularity judged by reviews of travelers. According to TripAdivsor, the most popular attractions are as follows: #1 The Vasa museum, a museum of a 17th century ship that sank and was salvaged after 300 years to become a museum. #2 Lund Cathedral, this is #1 in architectural attractions. #3 Visby city wall, a medieval defensive wall on the island of Gotland. the list of attractions goes on, and in many different directions depending on what style of tourism one is interested in. Other attractions, that may not be a primary attraction driving tourists to visit Sweden, are: Reindeer sleigh rides in the northern parts of Sweden, any of the 18 zoos or 3 aquariums in Sweden, city tours, hop-on hop-off, river or bus. One may also be interested in the history of the Vikings of Sweden (Scandinavia) in the more southern parts of Sweden. While the only wars fought on the land of Sweden were clan disputes of ancient times, war history is still found in Sweden. Dark tourism is a sub-genre that can be found in Sweden with all the Viking, Birka or modern war and burial site that can be found throughout the country.

Weather and Climate concerns. Because of the high latitude, colder weather can be expected. The farther north a person travels the weather will become colder and the snow sticks longer than the more southern and coastal areas. As the climate begins to change, a trend of slightly cooler weather in the winters could pose a concern to potential travelers. Snow, Ice and some rain coupled with cold temperature can become deadly if caution is not taken in consideration of travel plans. According to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the more prevalent natural disasters in Sweden are floods, landslides and forest fires. As a traveler, use caution and common sense to judge weather and climate concerns to determine the best time to travel for each traveler.

Safety/ Security concerns. According to SafeAround.com, Sweden ranks 22 out of 160 countries in their safety index. Sweden gets a score of 82.5 out of 100 on the safety index which takes into account all kinds of crime, but most importantly for tourists, mugging, road death toll, terrorist attacks and war. While no country is perfect in their safety or crime rates, Sweden can be considered a relatively safe environment for tourists if proper caution is used in travel. The most common crimes committed in Sweden are different types of theft and breaking and entering, these account for 33% of crime in Sweden.

Environmental concerns. Sweden has very low pollution levels due to the progressive efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. Since 1990 CO2 levels have slowly reduced as sustainability and alternate sources of energy are produced. Sweden uses incinerators to burn recyclables producing energy, this eliminates almost 100% of household waste. in 2015 Sweden began importing waste from neighboring countries to fuel their incinerators to produce needed energy, 2.3 million tons of waste was imported from the UK, Ireland and Norway. This program is working to eliminate Sweden's waste, other programs are being established to create full sustainability by 2030.

Socio-Economic concerns. As far as equality goes, Sweden is working towards equal opportunities for all, including children. in 1979, Sweden banned Corporal punishment which is spanking or striking a minor (a person under 18 years of age) as a form of discipline. Healthcare has greatly improved the mortality rate in Sweden, however a study was performed by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, higher socio-economic status correlates with longer life spans and better health. The average life span for Swedes is 82.5 years averaging between men and women and all socio-economic statuses, this is due to the universal healthcare given to all and the lower pollution among other factors.

Emergency Contacts. Important numbers to remember when visiting Sweden are : 112 for emergencies, 1177 for medical advice and 11 414 for non-emergency police assitance, each number can be contacted via mobile phone or landline. The Embassy for the United States in Sweden is located at the following address: Dag Hammarskjölds väg 31, 115 89 Stockholm, Sweden, the phone number is +46 8 783 53 00. For the Canadian Embassy Klarabergsgatan 23, 111 21 Stockholm, Sweden and the phone number is +46 8 453 30 00. Knowing these locations and numbers as a tourist can help alleviate issues that may arise while abroad.