Chris brings Americans to Stockholm.The upcoming wedding between Princess Madeleine and American Chris O’Neill is of great interest to Americans. They account for the greatest increase of booked trips to Stockholm for the weekend of June 7-9, when the wedding will take place. And the majority of them come from the same city in which the couple resides: New York.
Stockholm has plenty to offer anytime of the year (see our latest Walkabout tour of Sweden's capital but if you plan to enjoy the city itself, this week may not be the right time... flying New York to Stockholm 8 days after the wedding is going to set you back less than half the price of this week's ticket and there's so much else to do ... one of the most popular ways to experience more of Sweden, taking off from Stockholm or Göteborg, is Sweden on the blue ribbon of Göta Kanal in 2-6 days

But be that as it may, more than twice as many American tourists have picked Stockholm as their destination this year when compared with the same period last year. This according to statistics from Expedia, the online travel agency. And the greatest increase in traveling come from New Yorkers.

“The interest has increased in general for Scandinavia and Stockholm, and in specific for the wedding,” says Susanne Svensson, Nordic marketing director for Expedia. “We didn’t have these high percentages last year during the same period or for the weeks before. The weekend after (the wedding) the number of booked trips decreases again.”

Germans who have closely followed Princess Madeleine’s love affairs—real and fictive—also want to celebrate with her. The number of booked trips to Stockholm from Germany has increased by 108 percent over last year.
Airbnb, a leader in the market for renting private homes to tourists, says they have noticed a strong increase as well.

“We see a 56 percent rise for the weekend compared to the past few months,” say Chrisopher Lukezic, press officer at Airbnb, although Stockholm hotels do not notice a higher than usual occupancy during the June 8 weekend, according to for instance Metro.se. More than 335 reporters and photographers are expected to cover the royal wedding in Stockholm, according to the news agency TT. Among the heavy weights is American NBC—five of their reporters and photographers are being sent to Stockholm (interestingly, none of them were present at the Crown Princess’s wedding in 2010).

According to Expedia, the greatest increase of visitors booked to visit Stockholm during the wedding week are:
1. Americans (an increase of 135 percent)
2. Germans (108 percent increase)
3. Dutch (90 percent)

In general, the top nine nationalities who have planned a visit to Stockholm during the wedding week are:
1. Americans
2. Brits
3. Germans
4. Norwegians
5. Italians
6. Australians
7. Japanese
8. Dutch and
9. French

Staying in New York? SACC NY in cooperation with Michelin starred restaurant Aquavit is organizing a Royal Wedding Brunch (Tickets and info: Royal Wedding Brunch at Aquavit, NY) on June 8 between 8:30 AM and 10 AM broadcasting live from the wedding in Stockholm.

Sweden preparing for the royal wedding