Monday means travel news here at FREEDOMtravel, at least when we're not travelling ourselves. This week it's about flights to China, a gorilla baby and how the camping industry fared this unusual summer, among other things.
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SAS flies to China again
From 29 September it will again be possible to fly directly from Copenhagen to Shanghai with SAS, with one departure per week. At the end of October, SAS also plans to reopen the route to Beijing, subject to regulatory approval. Currently, SAS flies to 75 destinations. As there is still uncertainty about world travel, SAS offers travellers the opportunity to exchange a planned trip and ticket for a SAS Travel Voucher up to 16 days before departure. This applies to all international travel until 15 January.
First female gorilla born in Sweden
On Saturday 12 September, a baby gorilla was born at Kolmården. Initially, the mother gorilla held her baby close, making it difficult to tell its gender. But now the keepers are in agreement. It is a small female, which means it is the first female gorilla ever born in Sweden. The little baby has already been given a name - Kione. Gorilla mum Kiburi has taken very good care of her baby. The father is Enzo, who was the first gorilla to be born in Sweden in 2006. Enzo had a little brother in 2009, Echo, and little Kione is now the third gorilla baby to be born in Sweden.
50 per cent of Sweden's tourist overnight stays in summer 2020 were in campsites.
Normally, international guests account for more than 25 per cent of occupancy at Swedish campsites. Closed borders hit many hard this year, while domestic travel increased. A recent survey by SCR Svensk Camping shows that the variations in occupancy have never been so great in Sweden. A third of the campsites report that they have increased the occupancy of Swedish guests by 10 per cent or more during the period June-August. Figures from SCB/Tillväxtverket also show that in June and July, 50 per cent of all tourist overnight stays in Sweden were at a campsite.
Flygbussarna Charter and Båtbussarna change name to Merresor
Flygbussarna Charter and Båtbussarna, which offer travel for both small and large groups and connections from the City Terminal in Stockholm to the ferry terminals at Stadsgården, Värtahamnen and Nynäshamn, have been renamed Merresor since 1 September.. The company writes in a press release that the industry is in a tough period, but that they believe that they will soon see an increased demand for sustainable group and private travel by bus in Sweden. Merresor, which is part of the Transdev Group, also consists of more brands such as Snälltåget and Bussakuten.
Recovery for the camping industry
After a spring characterised by COVID-19 restrictions, the camping industry has gradually recovered over the summer. For Scandinavia's largest camping chain, First Camp, turnover in August was only 8 per cent lower than August 2019. For autumn, the booking situation is currently roughly in line with previous years. For First Camp, turnover (pro-forma) fell in June by 29 per cent, in July by 18 per cent and in August by 8 per cent, compared to the corresponding month in 2019. Thus, demand has gradually come back. Cottage accommodation in particular has been strong.
The favourite ice creams of Swedish campers
Which ice creams do Sweden's campers like best? First Camp has found out. The top 5 list of First Camp's 39 destinations in Sweden during the summer looks like this:
- Daimstrut
- Sandwich
- TipTop
- Magnum almond
- Twister
Reflection of the week
It's nice that the camping industry has done reasonably well this year, or that the campsites can at least recover. And how nice with a baby gorilla, we wish big congratulations to the gorilla mum!
Did you miss the last Happy Friday? Read the Halloween stunt and mini caravan with panoramic glass roof
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BP says:
What a nice picture of the gorilla mum and the tiny baby. It's great that at least the camping industry did well. Quite expected really, given the social distancing and so on.
Merresor, yes the first thing I thought of was the famous Äpple Mer;-)
28 September 2020 - 20:32
Henny says:
What I, and many of my acquaintances, think we have seen this summer is that the smaller campsites have been the winners in terms of guest numbers. On large campsites, it has been very sparse, while it has almost been difficult to get a place on the smaller and more familiar places that exist.
But this is mostly in Norrland. I also think that many have wild camping as there are many nice places up here.
29 September 2020 - 17:25