The Icelandic Tourist Board predicts that 1.7 million foreign tourists will arrive in Iceland via Keflavík Airport this year. Next year, it is expected that their number will increase by 600,000, reports RÚV.
Dr. Gunnar Haraldsson from the consulting company Intellecta has led work on the development of a forecasting system for foreign tourists in Iceland. The project started in autumn 2020. According to the forecast, almost 1.7 million tourists will come to Iceland by the end of 2022.
“Next year, we predict that there will be over 2.3 million tourists. However, there must be a certain caveat to these forecasts because many uncertainties can affect it,” says Dr. Gunnar Haraldsson.
In addition to predicting the number of people who will come here, the amount of money tourists spend in Iceland was forecasted. “We are looking at card turnover and according to the forecast, we expect the amount they will spend to be around 250 billion this year and around 330 next year. Foreign tourists spend quite a lot of money in Iceland on all kinds of products and services,” says Gunnar.
According to him, winter tourism is catching up, but there are some indications that the seasonal fluctuations are leveling out. Overnight stays this year amounted to almost 4.5 million, but according to the forecast, the number will increase to 5.5 million next year. According to a long-term forecast, it is expected that in 2030 3.5 million will visit Iceland.
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