Last Chance Tourism: Visitors To The Shrinking Glaciers Pose New Problems

The last week of August 2024 saw several natural hazards that significantly affected tourism in Iceland. First, 1.300 people were evacuated from the Blue Lagoon within 40 mins in response to the latest eruption, reopening on August 28. A hiker fell into a crevasse on August 25 while observing the eruption, and had to be retrieved by search and rescue.

But the most significant of these was the collapse of an ice cave on Breiðamerkurjökull on Sunday August 25 [see this issue’s cover story], which saw two members of a 23-person guided tour group become trapped under falling ice. One was rescued — albeit seriously injured and hospitalised — and the other was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.

Pushing the ecosystem

Many of Iceland’s tourists are engaging in the phenomenon known as “last chance tourism”. Also known as “doom tourism” in relation to climate change, this is a form of travel based on visiting sites that will soon disappear, or otherwise be destroyed.

“It’s up to Iceland to decide if last chance tourism means we’ve given up on combating climate change.”

Sophia Schneider is researching this idea for her masters thesis at the Reykjavík School of Energy. “The tragedy that occurred this week in the ice cave is a clear indication of the limits we are willing to push our ecosystem to for the value of a tourist dollar,” she says.

According to Sophia, Iceland has perfected the process of disaster packages for tourist consumption: “To see the great wonders of the world before they are gone.” Natural ice caves (as opposed to human-made drilled caves) are particularly interesting in this context, because they are caused by glacial meltwater. Iceland’s glaciers are melting at a rate over 150 metres a year — a fact that’s particularly visible at Solheimajökull on the south coast, where plaques show how the glacier’s retreat over the past decades. “Solheimajökull is a visual representation of the constant effects of last chance tourism in Iceland, and especially Mýrdalshreppur,” says Sophie.

The rising tide

Sophie’s research primarily focuses on the waste created by increased tourism in the South of Iceland. “When Iceland reaches its peak of tourism each year, more visitors mean more emissions and more waste,” she says. “Tourists are travelling to Mýrdalshreppur in record numbers to see locations such as glaciers, black sand beaches, puffins and waterfalls. What they see is fleeting. But the waste they leave behind is forever.”

“Tourism, and the waste it produces, is on the rise.”

Tourism, and the waste it produces, is on the rise. The number of international visitors coming through Keflavik Airport from July 2023 to June 2024 was 2.224.042 — an increase of 14% on the 22-23 total. Sophie found that the municipality of Mýrdalshreppur had 626 residents in 2017, and tallied up the waste alongside the population to show that 951.52 tonnes of waste were generated per resident.

This means the average resident generated 1.52 tonnes per annum. In Fjarðabyggð — the largest municipality in the east, with 1998 residents — this total was about a third of that, at 499.5 tonnes per person. “The residents of Mýrdalshreppur are not more wasteful in the sense that they generate 1.30 tonnes more per person,” says Sophie. “They have to absorb the waste of visitors.”

Wasteful emissions

The creation of this waste is only the start of the problem, with its collection and processing generating considerable emissions. Sophia’s thesis is the design and theoretical application of absorbing waste that is both generated for tourists, and by tourists.

“Biofuels are a solution to both emissions and the waste generated by tourists,” she says, referring to fuels produced directly from organic waste. “Iceland is an island, and the waste that record-breaking tourism creates does not leave the island when tourists leave. It’s too much responsibility for rural regions to find solutions for waste management, rather than bringing that waste all the way to Reykjavik, which is the current process for much of the south coast. We have to take the problem of waste from tourism and make solutions from it.”

At the moment the only biogas plant in Iceland is in Reykjavík, and Sophie contends that infrastructure should be expanded to meet the rising demand. “This also all correlates with carbon neutral goals,” she says. “Geothermal and hydropower have already been harvested, and it’s time to diversify and consider all the options. The disasters that have occurred this week should act as a wakeup call. It may be that last chance tourism drives the economy, but it’s up to Iceland to decide if last chance tourism means we’ve given up on combating climate change.”