From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism

• Published in: Environments
• Main Authors: Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir, C. Michael Hall, Margrét Wendt
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020
• Subjects: overtourism; crowding; growthism; dispersal; temporality; quality; Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; TD1-1066; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059; https://doaj.org/article/04a1dfe4f3cf456180175e343b88299f

Overtourism has emerged as a common concept to describe the perceived negative impacts that large numbers of tourists can have on destinations. Iceland is one of the destinations which has been most associated with the concept of overtourism. Tourism in Iceland grew rapidly from 2010 to 2019, much higher than in most other countries, with Iceland reaching a ranking as high as thirteenth on a list of countries with the highest ratio of tourists per inhabitant. The increase in visitors to the country has had various impacts on Iceland’s economy, society and environment. This paper provides an overview of the different ways in which overtourism has revealed itself at a national level in Iceland. The implications of supposed overtourism are shown to be complex, with management responses limited by their relative focus.