Iceland no longer red-hot for tourists
Buzzy volcanic island starting to lose some steam as a vacation destination
If you asked a group of people in the past five years where they’d been itching to travel, Iceland definitely would come up. But the latest tourism figures indicate interest in visiting the country may be starting to lose some steam.
In 2018, 2.3 million people visited Iceland, 5.5% more than the previous year, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board, but that increase is far lower than what the Nordic island is used to seeing.
“In recent years, tourism in Iceland grew rapidly, with an average year-onyear growth in tourist arrivals of over 25% since 2013, peaking in 2016 with 38% growth,” Inga Hlin Palsdottir, director at Visit Iceland, told USA TODAY. And for U.S. travelers, Iceland’s capital remains among the 50 most popular international destinations, said Jennifer Dohm, head of PR for the Americas at Hotels.com.
So why is Iceland no longer the hottest cold-weather destination? The truth is, nobody’s sure. But the lure of other destinations, the country’s expensive accommodations and the demise of WOW Air all could be partly to blame.
Iceland still is buzzy, but other areas are starting to gain traction among travelers.
Dohm said global searches for Greenland on Hotels.com rose 52% in 2018, while Iceland searches increased only 17%.
“We’ve been seeing more ‘Instagrammable’ and remote destinations grow in popularity over the last year, including other North Atlantic destinations like Greenland,” Dohm said.
Other data from Hotels.com indicate that North American travelers are flocking to such countries as Ireland, Turkey and Japan. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto’s visitor numbers have grown by nearly 9% this past year with a record high of nearly 32 million visits.
Clive Stacey, managing director of travel agency Discover the World, told The Telegraph that “the slow