Hotels in Tromsø in northern Norway are so fully booked this week that more than 40 private homes are being rented to house some players taking part in the Chess Olympiad. Several others are staying around an hour’s drive outside the city, in Malangen.
“In terms of overnight stays at hotels, this is the biggest event ever held in Tromsø,” Geir Solheim of travel employers’ organization NHO Reiseliv told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN).
The Chess Olympiad alone has attracted more than 3,000 participants to Tromsø, where the summer tourist season is still underway as well. Chess Olympiad organizers claimed that they stood for around 38,000 overnight stays alone during the first two weeks of August, along with 80,000 meals. That’s expected to generate around NOK 40 million in revenues, according to Olympiad director Børre Robertsen.
The event has an overall budget of NOK 119 million, with the state, the city and the county putting up NOK 99 million and organizers raising NOK 20 million from sponsors and suppliers, reported DN.
newsinenglish.no staff