The accommodation business in the Faroe Islands is largely dominated by Airbnb, which has more rooms on the islands than the hotels in its database. The Faroese hotels have a total of around 800 rooms – mainly in and around Torshavn.
Vert currently has around 200 holiday homes for rent, and after DanCenter’s entry, this number will double during the year.
DanCenter mediates the rental of holiday homes in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. The company has over 12,000 holiday homes in its portfolio – 628 of them spread throughout Norway.
DanCenter is owned by India’s OYO Vacation Homes, and the Faroese investment came after the Indian ambassador to Denmark, Pooja Kapur, visited the Faroe Islands with a delegation of Indian business leaders. Vert is currently owned by five Faroese owners.
Saksun, island of Streymøy, Faroe Islands Photo: EyesTravelling / Shutterstock / NTB
– The collaboration between OYO’s DanCenter and Vert marks a significant step for the tourism economy in the Faroe Islands. The partnership also opens up opportunities for business development across national borders, and facilitates knowledge sharing and cultural exchange between the two countries. It not only contributes to the growth of the tourism sector in the Faroe Islands, but also promotes deeper economic integration and cooperation between Denmark and India,” says the ambassador in a press release, according to Standby.dk.
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In the peak year of 2019, the Faroe Islands had 140,000 tourists visiting, around 50,000 of these were cruise tourists who only stayed for a few hours. Tourist traffic has not picked up again after the pandemic.
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The Faroe Islands have not yet returned to the international visitor numbers from 2019, the year before the pandemic. That year, the Faroe Islands had around 140,000 arrivals, around 50,000 of which were cruise tourists who are typically only in, for example, Torshavn for a few hours. The tourists spend the night, among other things, in the Faroese hotels, in total the Faroe Islands only have about 800 hotel rooms, most of them in and near Torshavn, including the Commonwealth’s only Hilton hotel.
Betting on conferences
The CEO of the Faroe Islands Tourist Board, Guðrið (Guri) Højgaard, told Standby.dk last year that the Faroe Islands are not just leisure tourists who mainly visit the archipelago in the summer.
– We also focus a lot on MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events), especially in the winter season – in total, probably 20-25 percent of our total number of foreign guests are MICE tourists, said Højgaard and added:
– But the Faroe Islands are also good for short break trips, longer weekends. Many come for good food, for shopping, art and culture. For example, we have many Copenhageners and tourists from other European cities who come to Torshavn without being adventurous types who have to climb the mountains.
