Stordalen: Turismen står på randen till undergång

Petter Anker Stordalen (born 29 November 1962) is a Norwegian billionaire businessman, hotel and property developer and self-proclaimed environmentalist. He has an estimated net worth of US$1.3 billion stemming from investments in hotels, shopping centers and property. Stordalen owns Strawberry, a corporate group consisting of ten companies in real estate, finance, hotels and art. Through Strawberry Hospitality Group, Stordalen owns Nordic Choice Hotels, consisting of over 200 hotels and employing 17,000 people. In the later stages of his career, Stordalen has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors together with his wife, doctor and environmentalist Gunhild Anker Stordalen, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations within environment/climate change and scientific research programs through the Stordalen Foundation, established in 2011.

Nordic Choice Hotels (until December 2010 known as Choice Hotels Scandinavia) is one of the largest hotel companies in Scandinavia with 200 hotels in Scandinavia and the Baltics and over 16,500 employees. The Norwegian company is 100% owned by Petter Stordalen through his company Strawberry Group. In 2006 Torgeir Silseth became CEO for the Nordic Choice Hotels Group. Nordic Choice Hotels is a franchisee of Choice Hotels International. The franchise agreement gives the company the right to use three brands and their umbrella brands. Apart from that, Nordic Choice Hotels is in most aspects run independently from Choice International.