Without transportation no tourism industry : Case Stockholm / Sweden

• The transport companies driving tourists to major cities in Sweden have difficulties when it comes to traffic problems like congestion in cities such as Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. Furthermore, these bus operators are not allowed in the lanes for the city buses, which can resultin long delays because of congestion, making buses not being able to arrive within a reasonable time. Moreover, they are not allowed to make right or left turns as city buses will do in city traffic. This means they have to take a detour to reach their destinations. They have to pay congestion charges, sometimes several times a day; there is a lack of special places at the various tourist attractions where tourists can get on and off the bus, which means that they often have to stay in the middle of the street forming an obstacle to other traffic. Last but not least, there are limited parking spots for bus operators when they need to park overnight. This affects both the bus driver´s working and driving time. It might also increase the risk of burglary in the bus.This study examined how local tourism businesses like hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions were acting to assist and facilitate the transport companies when they bring tourists / guests /visitors to the destination. The main result was that they did not care about bus companies' problems, neither the so-called tourism industry nor the DMO's. This despite the fact that bus companies transport tourists who generate 3, 2 million guest nights, contributing 3, 5 billion in tourism turnover in the Stockholm tourism industry. So one might wonder how long bus companies will be willing to drive to destinations where they only experience problems. Is the tourist industry in Stockholm aware of the problems and what do they do in that case to influence municipal decision-makers?

Nyckelord

Bus operators

local tourism business

NGO:s

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)