The weakening of the Icelandic crown has benefits in at least one aspect of the economy: tourism.
Morgunblaðið reports that in the past 12 months the crown has fallen in value by a stunning 46% against other currencies. This means that tourists to Iceland stand to pay significantly less for goods and services here than they did only one year ago.
Surprisingly, this has had little effect on the number of tourists visiting.
“Despite these significant changes, they have not yet yielded any visible increase in tourists,” Morgunblaðið reports. “In the first three months of this year, about 62,000 tourists visited Iceland. This is actually a 6.5% decrease from this same period last year.” It is expected that changes will be more significant in the summer, when tourism is normally at its peak.
On the flip side, Icelanders travelling abroad have been on the wane, as it is now 65% more expensive to travel to the US, for example. In fact, the Polish złoty is now worth 12% more than the Icelandic crown.