On July 26 100,000 people converged on the Norwegian capital to remember those killed in Friday’s twin attacks.
On the same day Margrethe Austad, cruise marketing manager for Oslo Port Authority, expressed her hope that ships will keep calling.
Austad expressed regret that two, possibly three, calls have been cancelled but was gladdened by Stein Kruse, president and chief executive Holland America Line and brought up in Oslo, saying that the line would be calling as scheduled.
Although security level at the port on Saturday was level 2, it was soon returned to level 1 (or normal conditions). The site of the explosion is not an area frequented by tourists.
Austad told CE that an operator had called to ask whether it was appropriate to visit Norway when the people are in mourning but she said: “We want the tourists to come back. We are sad on the one side but we can be good hosts on the other. We really have to go back to normal.”
All the attractions are open and the transport is working as normal, she added.
While the Norwegians are coming to terms with the tragedy, she talked of the national desire for the country to be an even more open society as has been demonstrated in the days following the attacks.
