Tackling overtourism: where next for Iceland?

21.07.2023 - 08:03 / roughguides.com / Keith Drew

In 2018, there were six tourists in Iceland for every local. As overtourism becomes an increasingly hot topic, Keith Drew looks at the effects of Iceland’s unprecedented tourist boom and where the country can go from here.

Scanning my headlamp across the ceiling of Víðgelmir cave, it was easy to pick out the jagged shapes of rust-coloured stalactites hanging in the half-light and the intricate swirls carved into the rock face by ancient rivers of lava. And just for a moment, as my guide disappeared into the darkness ahead of me, I had the blissful feeling that I was all alone. In Iceland these days, that’s a very rare feeling indeed.

Deildartunguhver — Copyright Shutterstock

The rise in visitor numbers to this volcanic island in the middle of the North Atlantic is staggering.

In 2010, when Iceland was only just beginning to recover from its crippling financial crisis, Eyjafjallajökull (that volcano with the unpronounceable name) erupted. The eruption sent an ash cloud across Europe, which grounded flights as far afield as the Med. Suddenly, Iceland was on everybody’s radar.

I had the blissful feeling that I was all alone. In Iceland these days, that’s a very rare feeling indeed.

That year, just under 490,000 tourists arrived to bathe in Iceland’s hot springs, hike on its glaciers and marvel at its dramatic scenery. In 2017, the figure had risen to 2.3 million.

Christmas in Reykjavik — copyright Shutterstock

Surely, worried locals wonder, something’s got to give?

In Reykjavík, it’s the housing market. Almost all visitors to Iceland spend at least one night in the capital, and with hotel rooms in short supply, apartments that were once let to locals are now filled with foreign visitors.

“Our city is livelier and more diverse because of tourism,” says Sveinn Hólmar Guðmundsson, a local resident, “but rental prices have gone through the roof.” Like a lot of Icelanders, he can see both sides of the country’s coin. Tourism is responsible for half of all the jobs created in the country since 2010 (including Guðmundsson’s) and has boosted wages to the point where Icelanders now only lag behind the Swiss in enjoying the highest salaries in Europe. But that can be cold comfort if it’s difficult to find a place to live in your home town.

Outside the capital, there are bigger concerns. Can Iceland handle all these visitors? What impact are they having on such an ecologically sensitive country?

Nature is the reason travellers come to Iceland. If we lose that, we lose everything

Jokulsarlon — copyright Shutterstock

On the South Coast, where glacial rivers run down from the mountains onto black-sand beaches, you can see tyre tracks etched into the delicate gravel plains where tourists have (illegally) driven their cars off-road.