Tourists Kinda “Meh” About Visiting Holuhraun

Now that tourists are allowed to visit the Holuhraun lava field, it seems few if any want to go.

Tourism companies in the Mývatn area that MBL spoke to said that interest in taking the Dyngjusand way to the Holuhraun lava field is not exactly a hot attraction. Icelanders and foreign tourists alike have shown little interest in exploring the lava field now that it is finally legal to go there.

“There is no demand,” Gísli Rafn Jónsson of Mývatn Tours told reporters. “Some Icelanders ask about the trip, I’ve gotten some questions from walking tour groups, and that’s it. One foreigner asked about it, too.”

The lack of interest is especially unusual in light of not just the fact that police had to keep people away from the area when it was forbidden to venture close; Gísli also regularly takes tourists to see nearby Askja. Despite Holuhraun being very close by to Askja, no one has expressed an interest in seeing the lava field.