According the a new report from the Icelandic Tourist Board, departures from Iceland increased significantly between last May to last month, and increased dramatically between June 2020 and June 2021.
The data from the report shows that while there were about 14,000 tourists in Iceland in May, that number has climbed to 43,000 in June. The numbers become more striking when comparing last June to June 2020: last year, the total departures for June were 5,945.
The largest portion of these departures are originally from the United States, comprising about half of last month’s total. They are followed by Poles (8.6%); Germans (7.3%); Brits (5.3%) and French (4.2%).
All this said, it is still too soon to call the full recovery of Iceland’s tourism industry. In Junes prior to the start of the coronavirus pandemic, this month would see on average anywhere from 210,000 to 230,000 departures from Keflavík International Airport.
With the lifting of most pandemic restrictions at the border, and all pandemic restrictions domestically, internal tourism may be recovering. However, pandemic restrictions in other countries are still putting the squeeze on how many tourists from abroad can visit Iceland, let alone want to.
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