Whether it’s long walks or nights spent stargazing, Sweden wants travellers to embrace blissful nothingness.
Have too many distractions in your life? Sweden might have the antidote for you.
The Scandinavian nation is inviting travellers to come and get bored this winter.
In a new marketing campaign, Sweden is encouraging visitors to slow down, switch off and spend time in nature with no fixed plan. The end-of-year campaign from Visit Sweden highlights activities that are deliberately low-key, from stargazing while sitting by a fire to watching wildlife or waiting hours for a fish to bite on a frozen lake.
Why boredom is the point
According to Visit Sweden, the goal is to give people permission to do less at the end of a busy year.
Instead of spotlighting well-known winter activities, the campaign steers travellers towards quieter corners of the country, where very little 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 hours of darkness around Kiruna and Abisko that naturally limit how much you can pack into a day.
Lighting a fire, going for a walk, stargazing, and watching the Northern Lights: the campaign frames these moments of stillness as the appeal rather 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 news 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 space and fewer fixed plans. The rise of digital detox retreats and off-grid cabins reflects the same move toward slower routines.
Last year, the term JOMO – the joy of missing out – encouraged precisely the kinds of activities Sweden is promoting now.
That might mean putting on snowshoes for a short loop in Jämtland or joining locals ice fishing on a lake outside Östersund. None of these activities requires complex equipment, long transfers or even itineraries scheduled for every hour of every day.
Sweden isn’t the only country in Europe seeking to capture tourists who prefer a less hectic holiday, though. Croatia has been encouraging visitors to explore its quieter coves and smaller coastal towns rather than crowding its most famous islands.
Even Italy – a country dealing with overtourism in several popular destinations – has done something similar with parts of its coastline, inviting travellers to experience the same scenery as its marquee destinations but slowly and without the pressure of heavy footfall.
This season, Sweden is betting that the same message will resonate with weary travellers. At the end of 2025, the absence of activity could be enough to justify a winter trip to Scandinavia.
