The Tourism Industry in Vestland during the Green Transition: Stakeholder Perspectives on Challenges and Opportunities

Report 2023/

Endre Kildal Iversen og Rasmus Bøgh Holmen

The Tourism Industry in Vestland during the Green Transition: Stakeholder Perspectives on Challenges and Opportunities

Category	Reports
Sub-Categories	Local and regional analysis Service and trade Environment
Year	2023
Author(s)	Endre Kildal Iversen Rasmus Bøgh Holmen
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Samfunns- og næringslivsforskning AS
Centre for Applied Research at NHH	
The Tourism Industry in Vestland 
during the Green Transition: 
Stakeholder Perspectives on 
Challenges and Opportunities
Endre Kildal Iversen
Rasmus Bøgh Holmen	
07/23	
RAPPORT
REPORT

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SN F R eport No. 07/23 
 
The Tourism Industry in Vestland during the Green Transition: 
Stakeholder Perspectives on Challenges and Opportunities 
 
 
Endre Kildal Iversen 
Rasmus Bøgh Holmen 	
 
 
 
 
 	
SNF -proje ct N o. 10105: 
" The T ourism Industry in Vestland during the Green Transition " 	
 
 	
The project is financed by Vestland Regional Research Fund 	
 
 
 
 
 	
C ENTRE FOR APPLIED RESEARCH AT NHH 
B ERGEN , DECEMBER 2023 	
 
 
 
 	
© This copy has been drawn up by agreement with Kopinor (www.kopinor.no). The production 
of further copies without agreement and in 
contravention of the Copyright Act is a 
punishable offence and may result in liability to 
compensation.

SNF Report No. 07/23 
14 
Table 
1: List of the informants in the reference group with type of informant, organization, 	
and title. Color codes indicate the main group s of informants – destination and business 
association s, tourism firms , and public and nature conservation interests . 
Type of informant	 	Organization	 	Title	 	Interviewee	 	
Regional destination company 	Fjord Norway 	Managing director 	Marianne Johnsen and Stein Ove Rolland 	
Business association 	The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) Vestland	et 	Senior advisor 	Wenche Salthella 	
Tour operator 	Up Norway 	Managing director 	Torunn Tronsvang 	
County authorities 	Vestland County 	Advisor and senior advisor within tourism 	Anne Silje Sylvarnes and Marta Rongved 	
National park 	Norwegian Nature Centre in Hardanger 	Managing director 	Oddvar Brakestad 	
 	
3.2 Interviews 	
In consultation with the reference group, we chose interview subjects with partially different 
perspectives, collectively providing a comprehensive understanding of the topic. W e conducted 
20 interviews with 22 key informants in the tourism industry , including seven interviews with 
destination leaders, ten with tourism businesses, three from firms providing tourism 
experiences, and three from organizations working with nature conservation interests. The se 
informants are listed in Table 2. 
The interviews are carried out in a semi -structured fashion, where we, to some extent, allow 
the interviewees to emphasise topics of which they have superior knowledge. Note that our 
interviewees were people in senior roles . Thus, the interviews could be considered elite 
interviews, implying that preparation and extensive prior knowledge were critical to facilitat ing 
a constructive interview climate , as suggested by Darbi & Hall (2014) . 
Topically, the interviews cover the four subtopics of our investigation – competitiveness, 
common good challenges, trade -offs between industry interests and environmental concerns , 
and adaptation to technological development. For each subtopic, we ask about four question 
points reported in our interview guide, which is rendered in appendix B. 
In our analysis of the interview data, we apply the general inductive approach in analyzing 
data, as proposed by Thomas (2006). Our interview responses are systematized in accordance 
with the thematic categorization , rendered in appendix C. This enables us to transform the 
condensed raw textual and recorded data into a structured presentation of reliable and valid

SNF Report No. 07/23 
15 
results. Furthermore, the approach is suited to identifying underlying patterns and providing 
clear links between the research objectives and summary findings in the raw data. 
Table 2: List of the informants in the interviews with type of informant, organization, and 	
title. Color codes indicate the main groups of informants – destination and business 
associations, tourism firms and public and nature conservation interests . 
Type of informant	 	Organization	 	Title	 	Interviewee	 	
City destination 	Visit Bergen 	Managing director 	Anders Nyland 	
Coastal destination 	Visit Fjordkysten og Sunnfjord 	Managing director 	Marita Solheim 	
Coastal destination 	Visit Sunnhordland 	Managing director 	Hilde Eide Helland 	
Fjord destination 	Visit Hardangerfjord 	Managing director 	Andreas Skogseth 	
Fjord destination 	Visit Nordfjord 	Managing director 	Marita Lindvik 	
Fjord destination 	Visit Sognefjord 	Managing director 	Heidi Hauge 	
Highland destination 	Visit Voss 	Managing director 	Gry Bystøl 	
Horizontal integrated hotel chain 	Norway’s Best 	Manager for strategy and communication 	Are Tokvam 	
Accommodation with food services 	Fjærland Fjordstove Hotell 	Managing director and consultant 	Bård Huseby 	
Accommodation with food services 	Haaheim Gaard 	Managing director 	Torstein Hatlevik 	
Accommodation with food services 	Jølstraholmen 	Managing director 	Kristine Hjelmbrekke and Tore Karlsen 	
Accommodation with food services 	Kviknes Hotel 	Managing director 	Sigurd Kvikne 	
Cruise 	The Fjords 	Managing director 	John Vonli 	
Restaurant and activities 	Buer restaurant 	Owner 	Elisabet h Wesenlund Hauge 	
Accommodation, restaurant, and activities 	Voss Active 	Managing director 	Frode Solbakk 	
Accommodation with food services 	Solstrand Hotel & Bad 	Hotel owner Technical director 	Børrea Schau -Larsen and Terje Klyve 	
Tourism management 	Trolltunga AS 	Managing director 	 Åse Marie Evjen 	
Tour organization 	Bergen og Hordaland Turlag 	Managing director 	Helene Ødven 	
Environment certification 	Ctma Wenche Nygård Eeg 	Managing director 	Wenche Nygård Eeg 	
Nature management 	County Governor of Vestland 	Senior adviser 	Tor Arne Hauge

SNF Report No. 07/23 
72 
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SNF Report No. 07/23 
75 	
A. APPENDIX: CLASSIFICATIONS 	
In this appendix, we account for the regional and industry classification applied in the study. 	
A.1 Regional Classification 	
In Table 3, we have accounted for the regional structure in Vestland of Fjord Norway, the 
regional destination company that covers Western Norway. 
Table 3: Organizational structure in Fjord Norway 
Destination 
company 	Municipalities 	Comment 	
Visit Bergen Alver
, Askøy, Austevoll, Austrheim, 
Bergen, Fedje, Gulen , Masfjorden 
Modalen , Osterøy , Tysnes, Vaksdal, 
Øygarden 	
Mostly cover	ed by	 Statistic	s Norway’	s 	
tourism region “Bergen Region” , which 
also includes Askøy, Bjørnafjorden and 
Samnanger and excludes Austevoll, 
Tys nes and Vaks dal . Tysnes is also 
member of Visit Sunnhordland. 	
Visit Fjordkysten 
and Sunnfjord 	
Askvoll, Fjaler, Hyllestad, Kinn, Solund	 	
and Sunnfjord 	
Cover	ed by	 Statistic	s Norway’s tourism 	
regions “Fjordkysten ” and “Sunnfjord ” 	
Visit Hardanger Eidfjord, Kvam, Kvinnherad
, Ulvik and 
Ullensvang 	
Cover	ed by	 Statistic	s Norway’s tourism 	
regions “Fjordkysten” and Kvinnherad , 
which also is member of Visit 
Sunnhordland. 	
Visit Nordfjord Bremanger, Gloppen, Stad a nd Stryn 	Coincides with	 Statistic	s Norway’s 	
tourism region “Nordfjord” 	
Visit 
Sognefjorden 	
Aurland, Høyanger	, Luster, Lærdal, 	
Sogndal, Vik and Årdal 	
Coincides with	 Statistic	s Norway’s 	
tourism region “Sognefjord” 	
Visit 
Sunnhordland Bømlo, Etne, 
Fitjar, Kvinnherad, Stord, 
Sveio an d Tysnes 	
Covered by Statistic	s Norway’s tourism 	
region “Sunnhordland ”, which also 
includes Austevoll. Kvin nherad is also 
member of Visit Hardanger , while Tysnes 
is also member of Visit Bergen. 	
Visit Voss Voss 	
Covered by Statistic	s Norway’s tourism 	
region “Voss”, which also includes 
Vaksdal 	
Municipalities 
without affiliation 
to a destination 
company Askøy, Bjørnafjorden and Samnanger
 Covered by Statistic
s Norway’s tourism 
region “Bergen Region”, which also 
includes municipalities in Visit Bergen

SNF Report No. 07/23 
76 
Bergen 
constitutes an urban destination, while Voss is the only inland region. The other regions 
are coastal and fjord regions attracting relatively many tourists (Sognefjorden and Hardanger) 
and not that many tourists (Sunnhordland, Fjordkysten and Sunnfjord and Nordfjord). 	
A.2 Industry Classification 	
In subsection 4.1, we provide a brief economic overview of the tourism industry in Vestland, 
based on material from Blumenthal et al. (2023) and Statistics Norway . In this regard, we have 
listed our operational definition of the tourism industry in Table 4. 
Table 4: Operational definition of t he tourism industry 
Type of segment	 	Industry segment	 	Subsegment	 	NACE definition	 	
Content services Accommodation
 
services 	
Hotels	 	55.101 and 55.102	 	
Camping, commercial 
cabins and hostels 	
55.201, 55.202, 55.301, 
55.302 and 55.900 	
Food and drink 
services 	
Food	-dominated 	
services 	
47.241, 56.101 and 
56.102 	
Drink	-dominated 	
services 56.301 and 56.309
 	
Experience services Active experience 
services 	
49.393, 77.210, 79.902, 
79.903. 91.040, 93.210, 
93.291, 93.292 and 
93.299 	
Cultivated experience 
services 	79.909, 90.040, 91.021, 
91.022, 91.023, 91.029 
and 91.030 	
Tourist trade Tourism trade 	46.492, 47.722, 47.810, 
47.820 and 47.890 	
Facilitation services Travel agencies
 Travel agencies 	
79.110, 79.120 and 
79.901 	
Passenger 
transportation Road passenger 
transportation 	
49.311, 49.320, 49.391, 
49.392, 52.214 and 
77.110 	
Railway passenger 
transportation 49.100 and 49.312
 
Sea	 passenger 	
transportation 	
50.101, 50.102, 50.109 
and 50.300 	
Air passenger 
transportation 51.100

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Samfunns- og næringslivsforskning AS
Centre for Applied Research at NHH This report discusses competitiveness, sustainability, conflict resolution, and 
technological integration under the green transition. The purpose is to enable 
tourism management in Vestland in correspondence with environmental and 
economic considerations and the evolving preferences of visitors. The primary 
method is interviews, supported by input from a reference group. We conducted 
20 interviews with 22 informants from destination companies, tourism firms, 
and public and nature conservation interests, while the reference group included 
seven informants from five organizations. 
Destinations in Vestland aim to attract high-paying tourists focusing on nature 
experiences and diverse tourism products. Competitive challenges include 
seasonal constraints, sustainability concerns, recruitment, funding, competition 
in the face of price pressures, and developments in circumstantial contexts. 
Respondents call for taking more advantage of nature in their marketing and 
a more complete product spectrum. Main sustainability challenges include 
dependence on carbon-intensive traveling from foreign markets and tourism 
crowding at specific locations, causing various environmental consequences. 
Stakeholders express a need for improved visitor management, potentially 
through the sustainable destination certification, which receives positive 
feedback. Conflicts between tourism interests and natural values in Vestland 
include the impact on vulnerable wild reindeer habitats, with ski resorts, gondolas 
and recreational homes encroaching on their territory. Cruise ship emissions and 
problems with the zero-emission requirement in world heritage fjords highlight 
the need for tourism management to consider all effects on markets and nature. 
Several respondents ask for more stakeholder involvement in energy project 
developments and land use conflicts to improve outcomes. Most respondents see 
benefits in various technological applications, including software, equipment, 
and digitalization of internal work processes, but they also bring coordination 
issues and frustrations with online travel agencies. They highlight the need 
for more coordination, cooperation, interactivity in digital presentation, and 
enhanced technological infrastructure, especially in electric charging facilities 
and electronic communication.