Plan/Priorities for the season

The Danish West Coast Partnership is testing the West Coast App during the summer 2021. The app has been created to ensure good quality information to the tourists as well as a way of gathering more data on preferences and movement of the tourists.

Our current efforts focus on updating the Development Plan for the Danish West Coast – most of the initiatives in the current plan have been completed ahead of time, the update is therefore the next step in creating a cohesive West Coast Destination as well emphasizing sustainability as a vital part of tourism development in the entire destination.

The local DMOs and municipalities are collaborating on different projects to in order to recover from the pandemic.

The projects have both short term and long term measures.

Short term: identification of the new needs of the tourists, helping the tourism sector in the transition to corona-secure activities and facilities, and creating a summer package with information and posters for the summer 2020.

Long term: test and development of new sustainable activities and a heightened focus on sustainability, digitalization and outdoor activities.

Impact of the pandemic on numbers of visitors

The national recovery packages in Denmark has been implemented differently in 2021. The packages for the tourism and cultural sector in 2020 gave most cultural institutions the possibility of lowering the entrance fees without losing income leading to high levels of visitors.

In 2021 the cultural institutions were subject to further restrictions (ex. no access without a valid corona pass) and did not have the possibility of lowering the entrance fees without losing income.
In the summer of 2021, restrictions have been stricter compared to 2020.

The restriction for 2021 include wearing face masks while visiting cultural institutions, having a valid coronapass (proof of vaccination, or a negative antigen test or pcr test) to have indoor service in restaurants as well as visiting cultural institutions.

While the restrictions for travelling were lifted somewhat in late June, so tourists from green or yellow countries/zones were allowed to travel into Denmark with a valid coronapass, the number of overnight stays have not been as high during July 2021 as July 2020.

Data on the Summer Season

The number of overnight stays in the Danish West Coast Partnership is up by 830,000 overnight stays from January-Juli 2021 compared to the same months in 2020. However, the number of overnight stays in July 2021 have decreased by 5 % compared to July 2020 (from 4.178.152 overnight stays in July 2020 to 3.955.465. overnight stays in July 2021).

While domestic tourism has surged, there is a noticeable fall in German and Norwegian overnight stays, while Dutch and Swedish overnight stays has increased compared to 2020.

Update on the EU Funds in the Region

Currently we are mostly using national funds for our projects, such as: The West Coast as a Power Brand.

The ambition is to reach 2019 levels of overnight stays in 2023. The project will focus on attracting new target groups and developing sustainable products that are viable the entire year, and not just in the summer season. The project continues from where the recovery projects ends.