Iceland Review has published a story on the coronavirus testing scheme for arrivals into the country. It includes some interesting statistics on the 2020 tourism season so far, compared with previous years, which saw increasing growth in tourism.
"It’s been an unusual and very tourist-light summer in Iceland, with Danish and German nationals making up the majority of foreign travellers. Somewhat surprising is that while there’s been a significant decrease in the number of visitors from nine out the top ten countries whose residents typically visit Iceland, there was a substantial increase in the number of Danish tourists in July. Statistics published by the Iceland Tourist Board show a 32.7% increase, in fact, or 9,949 Danish visitors this July, versus 7,497 in July of last year. There was a 51.4% drop in the number of German tourists this summer, but Germans still account for the second-highest number of foreign visitors this July: 9,220 (versus 18,968 in July 2019). It is a significant jump then down to the third-largest group of foreign visitors this July; 3,181 Polish nationals visited last month, versus 10,429 in July 2019. “This is clearly the German and Danish summer,” noted Skarphéðinn Berg Steinarsson, director of the Icelandic Tourist Board.
Perhaps even more bracing are the figures for the tourists who aren’t visiting Iceland this year, particularly travellers from North America and Asia, which are both very important tourist bases for Iceland. For instance, 65,552 Americans visited Iceland last July; this year, only 362 did."
Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license
Comments
Post a Comment