City report
People, planet, profit
OSLO’S DECISION TO ADDRESS ITS INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES
HAS BEEN THE CATALYST FOR ITS GROWING MICE CONFIDENCE,
SIMON GEORGE REPORTS
or a small city, Oslo has big
plans. Norway’s compact
capital has seen huge
change in recent years and
it is one of Europe’s fastest growing
capitals. To get a sense of how much
progress has made, a top-down approach
is instructive.
Significant investment, both public
and private, has led to major
improvements in the city’s infrastructure
in the past 10-20 years, Christian Lunde,
CEO of Visit Oslo, told CMW.
Urban renewal in the shape of the
Fjord City project has opened up Oslo’s
central waterfront, led to the renovation
of the harbour, freed up space for new
cultural attractions such as Oslo’s opera
house, and crucially removed a major
traffic bottleneck that was clogging up
the city – the bold decision to relocate the
port south of the city, take out the city’s
main thoroughfare and re-route the
traffic under the sea resolving the
problem.
Oslo VIPeace
Visit Oslo first devised
the Oslo VIPeace
familiarisation trip
in 2015, using the
awarding of the
Nobel Peace Prize
on 10 December,
the anniversary of
Alfred Nobel’s death,
as a focal point to
showcase the city’s
MICE offering during
the winter.
This year the prize
was awarded jointly to
Nadia Murad (an Iraqi
Yazidi captured by IS)
and Denis Mukwege
(a gynaecologist in
Democratic Republic
of the Congo) for
their stand against
sexual violence being
Momentum
Two new attractions will be completed in
2020 – the new Edvard Munch museum
and the new national library, while a
national museum of art, architecture and
design is also set to open next year.
Environmentally, Oslo aims to be carbon
neutral by 2030; it has been voted
European Green Capital 2019, a spin-off
of which will see Norway host four big
used as a weapon of
war. This year’s trip
included a tour of the
Nobel Peace Center,
listening to both of the
acceptance speeches,
and participation in a
torchlit walk of peace
along Karl Johan Street
in the evening.
ISSUE 99
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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23