Daði Guðjónsson, Director of Consumer Marketing at Business Iceland (Íslandsstofa), has stated in an interview with Fréttablaðið that he believes decision to allow vaccinated tourists from outside the Schengen area will massively pique the interests of potential visitors to the country.
Daði states that “At least we found more support and increased interest from tourists in these areas.”
Come to Iceland!
As Daði told the news agency, “Marketing is underway in the UK. We set off when we saw an increase in bookings from there following the government’s statement there about the next steps.
A photo from the advertising campaign being released in the UK.
There were over a million views of the marketing videos after one and a half weeks and 600,000 responses from users on social media. Indicates that there is a lot of interest in the destination among our target group.”
Americans are the most positive towards Iceland
“According to our latest analysis, Americans are the most positive when traveling to Iceland. The main obstacle has been uncertainty about borders and when it is possible to travel,” says the director.
According to a survey conducted last month, 9% to 13% of the target group of Íslandsstofa in the UK and USA wanted to travel to Iceland in the next 12 months.
This survey was taken before Iceland opened its borders to those outside Schengen so it will be interesting to see what effect that decision will have on potential tourists.
Trust us, we know what we’re doing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Iceland’s authorities have responded well to the outbreak and this has created a positive reaction from those outside of the country.
“According to a survey submitted in February, most people said they trusted Iceland best to deal with COVID. It is in the unequivocal interests of all of us, not least the tourism industry, to maintain this strong image, “says Daði.
The volcano eruption has also gained the attention of media all over the world, which will likely benefit tourism when the country starts to open up more.
Daði states “There is more attention in foreign media coverage, so it has certainly attracted attention. We are monitoring the discussions and are answering a lot of foreign questions about this.”
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