The car rental industry has experienced a 77% increase in business in the first 4 months of 2013 compared with the same period last year. Likewise, business has been booming for all other companies frequented by tourists according to data on foreign card sales, RÚV reports.
From January through to the end of April museums and galleries saw a 63% increase in foreign card sales, and trade grew an average of 29% year over year.
That means big bucks for merchants throughout the country if the increased sales trend continues. In 2012 clothing stores raked in 2.7 billion ISK in foreign card sales, grocery stores claimed 2.3 billion ISK, and foreign cardholders spent 1.8 billion ISK at souvenir shops. Naturally, the biggest chunks of tourist revenue went to hotels, which took a 14.4 billion ISK piece of the pie, and tour operators, which sold 8.7 billion ISK worth of services to foreign card holders.
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