Tourism
The village of Flåm has since the late 19th century been a tourist destination. It currently receives almost 450,000 visitors a year. Most ride the 20-kilometre (12 mi) Flåm Line between Flåm and Myrdal, one of the steepest railway tracks at 1 in 18 (not counting rack railways) in the world. There are also a few spirals. A former rail station building in Flåm now houses a museum dedicated to the Flåm railway.
The harbour of Flåm receives some 160 cruise ships per year.
Complaints of- and suggested curbs on tourism
In a 2005 Bergens Tidende article Kjetil Smørås (a hotel director and chairman of Fjord Norge said that "The cruise traffic pollutes more than several ten thousands of cars, and many of the worst ships sail up here (...) cruise tourists trod down the pristine Norwegian nature, and destroy the foundation for Vestlandet's four entries on Unesco's World Heritage lists".
In 2009 Jens Riisnæs (an author and NRK journalist) said "We have the world's most beautiful nation, we don't need to follow cruise operators' premisser. They can go other places with their polluting ships. It is unwanted noise."
In 2009 Dagens Næringsliv said that a report by Vestlandsforskning says that both "Flåm and Geiranger are nearing a limit in capacity. It might be an alternative and rather stand forth as a «relaxed», exclusive and somewhat less of a mass tourism, cruise destination."
In a 2014 Dagens Næringsliv article a farmer said that "Previously the smell of summer was that of grass that had been cut. Now [the smell] it is [of] tungolje" ["heavy-oil"]. Furthermore, "They [a retired couple] talk about fish that has disappered from the fjord. In Norway cruise ships are permitted to dump overboard their greywater in the postcard-narrow fjord-arms. Furthermore the news article says that defacation in public by tourists, is already a problem; the village has one public toilet, and 200 000 tourists are expected in the summer season.
In 2014 a professor i reiseliv (Arvid Viken) said that "it is about time this [type of] tourism is evalaluated somewhat more soberly, than the evaluations done in many municipalities for some years". Furthermore, this tourism "has low profit per tourist, but often it is associated with considerable costs for" the municipal administrations."
--Wikipedia (
visit link)
"To reach Flåm, your MSC cruise ship will navigate into the Sognefjord, the longest of the hundreds of Norwegian fjords.
Extending over 204 kilometres and 1,308 metres deep, it is a record breaking fjord in which your ship will head southward, to reach the southern end of the Aurlandsfjord. At this point of your MSC cruise of Northern Europe you will see Flåm, amidst mountains of dense forest reaching up to the sky.
In this challenging and remote setting you can see how even a modern means of locomotion like the train can blend in with Norway’s spectacular natural landscape. Take a train ride from Flåm to Kjosfossen: 20 incredible kilometres inside the green coaches up to the station of Myrdal on the Bergen railway line.
The landscapes you will admire are truly unique and will make your journey unforgettable. Nature is revealed in its most beautiful and wild landscape, with rock shaped by rivers that form gorges and rifts and waterfalls that plunge down dizzy heights, and, here and there, mountain farms, perched like mountain climbers, where cattle are raised and excellent cheese is produced.
And to think that the current to power the train is actually a gift of nature. It is the imposing Kjosfossen waterfalls, that plunge vertically down almost as if to show off to the tourist’s camera, that move the turbines that produce the electric energy for the railway line. Don’t miss the excursion in rubber dinghies or kayaks in the waters surrounding the small port.
You will have the opportunity to see the variety of animals and plants that inhabit these shores. Visit the protected areas of the Aurlandfjord and the Nærøyfjord to admire the majestic beauty produced by the activity of the ice and the sea on this land, from a privileged point of view."
--MSC Cruises (
visit link)
Information about the MSC Sinfonia ship is available online (
visit link) .