Scandinavian travel companies see sharp decline from last year

It was a tough summer for the Danish hotel industry, which recorded 1.4 million fewer overnight stays this summer (June, July, and August) compared to last year, according to the Scandinavian travel industry publication Take Off. August was particularly slow, with numbers down 6.4 percent from 2008. Both foreign and domestic tourism suffered a substantial decline, with vacation home rentals, holiday parks, and hostels the worst off (a 20 percent decline in August).

On the airline front, passenger numbers for the SAS Group were down nearly 15 percent last month compared with September 2008. The Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian governments jointly own 50 percent of SAS shares, with private shareholders owning the rest.

Similarly, Finland's national carrier Finnair reported a drop of almost 11 percent in passengers for the same time period.