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Have too many distractions in your life? Sweden might need the antidote for you.
The Scandinavian nation is inviting travellers to come back and get bored this winter.
In a latest marketing campaign, Sweden is encouraging visitors to decelerate, switch off and spend time in nature with no fixed plan. The tip-of-year campaign from Visit Sweden highlights activities which might be deliberately low-key, from stargazing while sitting by a fireplace to watching wildlife or waiting hours for a fish to bite on a frozen lake.
Why boredom is the purpose
Based on Visit Sweden, the goal is to provide people permission to do less at the top of a busy 12 months.
As a substitute of spotlighting well-known winter activities, the campaign steers travellers towards quieter corners of the country, where little or no competes for attention.
In Sörmland, cabins next to forest trails beckon travellers with blissful solitude. Hälsingland encourages digital detox stays in places with limited WiFi and even fewer distractions, while Lapland offers a serious slowdown, with long nighttimes around Kiruna and Abisko that naturally limit how much you’ll be able to pack right into a day.
Lighting a fireplace, going for a walk, stargazing, and watching the Northern Lights: the campaign frames these moments of stillness because the appeal fairly than the absence of activity.
Even long drives along the so-called Wilderness Road (Vildmarksvägen) – Sweden’s highest paved road, running through forests and mountains where reindeer roam – are enough to fill a day’s itinerary.
A shift towards quieter travel
In an era defined by the ceaseless cycle of stories and entertainment, slow travel represents a sweeping change in what many travellers seek from their trips.
Nature-based holidays, dark-sky travel and detour destinations have gained traction recently, helped by people wanting more room and fewer fixed plans. The rise of digital detox retreats and off-grid cabins reflects the identical move toward slower routines.
Last 12 months, the term JOMO – the enjoyment of missing out – encouraged precisely the sorts of activities Sweden is promoting now.
That may mean putting on snowshoes for a brief loop in Jämtland or joining locals ice fishing on a lake outside Östersund. None of those activities requires complex equipment, long transfers and even itineraries scheduled for each hour of each day.
Sweden isn’t the one country in Europe in search of to capture tourists preferring a less hectic holiday, though. Croatia has been encouraging visitors to explore its quieter coves and smaller coastal towns fairly than crowding its most famous islands.
Even Italy – a rustic coping with overtourism in several popular destinations – has done something similar with parts of its coastline, inviting travellers to experience the identical scenery as its marquee destinations but slowly and without the pressure of heavy footfall.
This season, Sweden is betting that the identical message will resonate with weary travellers. At the top of 2025, the absence of activity might be enough to justify a winter trip to Scandinavia.
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