Travel Tips: How To Be A Responsible Tourist

Official Travel Guide to Oslo

We passionately believe tourism can play a huge part in positively impacting our city. By nurturing our culture, respecting our heritage, recounting our history we in-turn can support communities, sustain jobs, boost local supply chains, improve infrastructure, and renovate buildings.

However, we fully recognise tourism can also negatively impact the environment and the people it serves.

Here at VisitOSLO, we work tirelessly in the background with our partners, to ensure these impacts are avoided through understanding, measurement, and reduction. We appreciate this is a work in progress, and a collective effort between VisitOSLO, our partners, and our guests.

Here we share our thoughts on responsible tourism and show how you, our guest, can help us take care of Oslo.

What is responsible tourism?

esponsible tourism is a strategy to make a positive impact on any destination, whether that’s environmental, societal, or economical and to strive to negate any negative effects. To be a responsible tourist means that you travel with an open mind to maximise positive encounters and minimise negative ones.

How we help you be a responsible tourist?

As the official tourist body for Oslo – the capital of Norway – we endeavour to promote attractions, restaurants, hotels, and tourist activities that focus on responsible tourism. As part of our mission, we take pride in promoting local businesses that prioritise taking care of our environment and local society.

We are proud of what our city has to offer; be it our art, history, culture, fantastic port area, our abundance of nature both in and around city centre and not forgetting your hosts, our wonderful locals that welcome you.
Wishing tourists from all over the world a warm welcome to our humble (yet modern) city is something we love, and it is our job to showcase the very best Oslo has to offer!

… and because we care, we have compiled a list of simple tips that can help you enjoy your trip without leaving many negative climate footprints.
Travelling is inherent in our culture, and we don’t intend to stop now.

However, what we can do is guide you to make better choices and highlight our partners that strive to do better to protect the environment and who actively seek ways to reduce negative impacts.

VisitOSLO aims to contribute to responsible tourism, strive towards positive change and minimise any negative footprints. In that way, we will be able to invite many, many tourists now and in the future.

But my contribution is so small …

Many people think their somewhat small contribution will have little, or no, effect on the environment or communities they visit, however if everyone tries to think differently, we CAN make a collective difference when travelling.

Just by being informed about our partners that prioritise, say for example waste reduction or good work conditions for their employees, is just a start to our collective effort to make a difference, and at the same time perhaps inspire others to take more conscious decisions about the choices they make. Take a look at our top tips on how to be a responsible tourist below the picture.

Top tips to be a responsible tourist in our beautiful Oslo

Here are our top responsible travel tips to ensure you can leave a positive footprint, and at the same time, most likely, make your trip even better! Win-win!

Travel all year round
Take care of cultural treasures
Choose sustainable hotels
Eat green
Be a food-saver
Choose sustainable activities
Do as the locals and get to know the local practice
Support social entrepreneurs
Spend money on local shops
Go for public transport (or walk!)

Travel all year round

Norway is beautiful all year around and we encourage you to visit Oslo in all seasons – the experience can be quite different. And don’t worry, we’re accustomed to the cold and we’re happy to provide cosy blankets when enjoying a ‘strong’ coffee outside in one of our very many cultural cafes and restaurants! We have a saying here in Norway that “there`s no such thing as bad weather in Norway, just bad clothes” – which may give you an excuse to shop in many of our wonderful shops selling authentic traditional wool clothing or on-trend outdoor all-weather gear. Buying local is another way to keep money in the locality and support small businesses.

Norwegian summer holidays are earlier than most of Europe and many locals escape the city, so take advantage of quieter visiting times in museums and art galleries, thus reducing crowds, maximising your overall experience, and minimising the attractions negative impacts.

Take care of the cultural treasures

Although, it might be tempting to touch and feel the structure on sculptures, paintings, and treasures from another time, or maybe you would love to take a picture next to a world-famous painting (like the Scream – we can assure you, that you are not the only one!), make sure you know when and where you are permitted to touch or take a photo. In Norway, we have a very open culture, and you will often find world-known art pieces quite open and easy to access. We wish to keep this openness and appreciate it if you keep your distance and respect the rules that are set by the museum or attraction you visit.

Eat green

Our restaurant scene, here in Oslo, is vibrant and you’ll find most streets host a variety of establishments to suit all budgets. Most places are very socially and environmentally minded and you will find restaurants, cafes and bars offering local food and beverages, have good work conditions (social sustainability is also important!) and are mindful of food waste.

Take a look at sustainable restaurants and cafes in Oslo.

Be a food-saver

Once again Oslo’s food scene is leading the way in combating food waste and collectively changing the way we manage leftover food. If you fancy a change of scenery away from the crowds, we recommend making the most of Oslo’s Too Good To Go scheme. Through this initiative, you can purchase surplus food, at a reduced price, as a take-away to enjoy in one of Oslo’s many parks. More and more restaurants and cafes in Oslo have joined this innovative scheme and give you access to a whole host of cuisines. Downloading the Too Good To Go app is easy, and a simple win to lower your carbon footprint.

Save food. Save money. Save the planet.

Do as the locals and get to know the local culture

When you are planning a trip, you should check the event calendar of your chosen destination before you arrive, and Oslo is no exception. If events are popular with the locals, then, it’s safe to say you’ll wind up having a great time too, so you should try to book a ticket if you get the chance. In this way you can guarantee a totally different experience to other tourists. It might also give the opportunity to get to know the locals – perhaps you will find new friends for life?

In Oslo we have the music festival Øyafestivalen – a very popular festival mid-august that has been awarded the world’s most sustainable festival!

Behave like you are at your own home! Respect the local culture and treat the locals like you treat your friends and family. Each country has its own traditions, and your trip will be smoother if you have read on the local traditions before you arrive at the destination. For instance, in Norway we give each other lots of space and don`t like to stand close to others on public transport. It is considered polite to choose a free double seat instead of sitting down next to strangers.

Support social entrepreneurs

In many cities there are different social enterprises and organisations that help people in need by giving them a meaningful job, helping them contribute to the society and earn a living wage. In Oslo you will also find many social entrepreneurs throughout your stay from restaurants to shops to attractions.

Spend money on local shops

In every city there are plenty of local shops and businesses that create value for the local supply chain. An easy way to support these initiatives is to visit many of our shops, restaurants and hotels that offer authentic, local food and gifts that are unique to Norway.

Go for public transport (or walk!)

Go for the transport that leaves the smaller footprint on the environment. Choose bus, tram, or subway – or even better walk or rent a bike! Many cities are smaller than they look, and the distance between two attractions isn`t necessarily that far. Like in Oslo, where you can walk almost anywhere in the city centre in under 30 minutes. A new addition to our city greenscape is many electric buses and even electric public ferries!

Enjoy your trip

Most importantly and this ends our tip list: enjoy your trip to Oslo! You are most welcome 😊