Vistelser

Vistelser is a Swedish noun meaning the act or period of staying in a place. It commonly denotes the duration of time that a person spends at a hotel, hospital, residence, or other location. In statistical and administrative language the term is used to discuss patterns of travel and accommodation, for example längden på vistelsen (the length of the stay) or antal vistelser (the number of stays). In healthcare, the English equivalent is length of stay (LOS), referring to how long a patient remains in hospital or care facilities.

The word is formed from the verb vistas, meaning to reside or to be located. It appears in a variety of collocations including turistvistelse (tourist stay) and tidsvistelse (period of stay), though usage can vary by context. In everyday Swedish, speakers distinguish between besök (a visit) and vistelse (a stay), with the latter implying a period of presence rather than a one-off encounter.

In travel and tourism statistics, vistelser are used to quantify economic impact through measures such as average vistelse duration and total number of vistelser. The concept is language-specific, but parallel notions exist in other languages, such as “duration of stay” in English or “opphold” in Norwegian and Danish, though not identical in usage.

See also: stay, residence, duration.