Tourism ìSwedish Styleî - Why does the country attract so many tourists as well as investors and what does it mean for its economy?

The paper is about the tourism sector, its influence on the economy and the extraordinary choice of accommodation offered in Sweden: 1. Tourism in Sweden has increased dramatically in recent years and interest is still rising in line with the number of new facilities. The number of foreign nights spent in Sweden has grown since the 1990ies by almost 100%. As a destination, Sweden has followed international volume trends and has even outperformed Europe as a whole. The aim of the Swedish tourism policy is to be a highly attractive tourist destination and tourism has to be competitive in the long term, contributing to sustainable growth throughout the country. 2. Not only tourism influences the Swedish economy. The country is among Europeís best-performing economies and it is one of the worldís most attractive locations of foreign direct investment. High liquidity, an outstanding transparency, low transaction costs and investor-friendly business procedures are making the real estate sector an interesting opportunity for international investors. 3. The Swedish hotel sector offers a huge variety and there is an enormous amount of different accommodation styles which are unique in the world, and visitors are coming from all over to spend a night in one of these places. Its outstanding ideas of lodging like e.g. in an ice hotel can easily compete with the most interesting locations in the whole world.