Iceland eyes to attract more Filipino tourists

Iceland is eyeing to attract more Filipino tourists as it boosts its promotion efforts to newer markets.

A delegation from Iceland’s tourism department conducted a promotions event on Friday where it met with Filipino travel agents, in line with marketing the country.

Thorleifur Thor Jonsson, senior manager for trade delegation of Promote said the country has witnessed a tourism boom in recent years.

Last year, tourist arrivals in Iceland reached 2.2 million, a significant increase from around 500,000 tourists in 2014.

Jonsson attributed the boost in tourists to the accessibility and as well as the variety of activities it has to offer tourists.

“I think Iceland’s key strength, beyond many countries is our accessibility. We have so much to offer and it can be easily reached at a relatively short time,” Jonsson said.

“On the same day, you can start in the morning in the hotel in the capital and then in two hours you can be in a stone scooter in the glacier then maybe two hours later you can do horseback riding in the green valley. Then you can end up in natural hot pool somewhere right in the middle of nowhere. So all of these in short distances,” Jonsson said.

Jonsson emphasized that the variety of attractions that Iceland offers allows tourists to experience so much in so little time.

The country is particularly gaining interest from the adventure/ explorers market who travel to do various outdoor activities.

While the country’s tourism industry is booming, Jonsson said Iceland has yet to reach out to new markets such as the Philippines, a market where it does not have a firm hold of yet.

He said that most of the country’s visitor arrivals comes from countries in Europe such as France, particularly Paris.

With no direct flights to the Asian region yet, Iceland is a destination that is still under the radar for Asian tourists. This is why the country is eyeing to improve its marketing and promotions efforts in the said market, as it eyes to diversify its source of visitors.

“Everybody who knows business, knows that he must not rely on a single market. We’d like to open up to other markets,” Jonsson said.

“Tourism in Asia is fastest growing in the world. We want to have part of that cake,” he added.

Despite Iceland’s impressive tourism growth in the past few years, Jonsson said the country is hoping that growth will slow down in order for its infrastructure to keep up with the growth of the sector.

Iceland’s tourism sector has been growing between 10 to 15 percent annually in the past four years.