In 2024 – thirty years after the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Transport and Communication launched the initiative – the Norwegian Public Roads Administration will have given Norwegian tourism the biggest boost ever.
On 18 selected roads, from Jæren in the south to Varanger in the north, visitors by car can now experience 195 rest areas and viewpoints which have been transformed into small architectural gems. The National Tourist Routes will continue to strengthen its position as a tourist attraction towards 2024. The tourists’ expectations are high. Five new sites will be opened in May-June this year, and 46 new attractions will be added from 2018 – 2023.
Related: Columna Transatlantica in Norway
“With the new pictures of Norway, with its distinctive combination of nature, road, architecture and art, we will entice tourists from home and abroad to spend their holidays here,” writes Terje Moe Gustavsen, Director General at Norwegian Public Roads Administration in the foreword to the recently published book National Tourist Routes in Norway. The book contains impressing photos from the national tourist routes with text in Norwegian, English and German.
In 2017 the Norwegian Public Roads Administration had completed about 60 percent of the job. The book presents a selection of the projects that have been completed or are in the process of being transformed from idea into reality. New generation of architects and landscape architects have been given the opportunity to contribute with the different perspectives on how nature experiences, practical needs and construction can be incorporated with the uniqueness and mood of the various sites.
Related: Norway’s Views
The installations have to be operated and maintained, and both the Norwegian government and the county administrations are prepared to contribute.
“We must also make sure that the experience of landscape is preserved when roads are improved for better mobility and safety,” writes Gustavsen.
Related: The Beautiful Tourist Roads in Norway
Local food, accommodation and activities must also be of the highest quality. This means that many local businesses have a huge task ahead of them.
Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industries and it will be important to Norway’s future economy. The primary objective of the National Tourist Routes is to contribute to viable business and industry in rural Norway.
As this book shows, Norwegian Public Roads Administration is well underway with its part of the task – to plan, build, renovate and maintain the National Tourist Routes attraction.
Buy the book and let it inspire you to experience the unique Norway by car.
National Tourist Routes in Norway, is based on the foreword to the book National Tourist Roads in Norway by Terje Moe Gustavsen, Director General of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, updated with numbers from the 2017 Annual Report.
All photographs provided by the National Tourist Routes in Norway
Feature image (on top): Viewpoint with parking and toilet at Stegastein, Aurlandsfjellet