Tourist Accommodation Bookings Increase 55% Over Past Year

According to new data from Statistics Iceland, booked accommodation nights by tourists in Iceland increased by 55% from December 2020 to December 2021.

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In terms of real numbers, this is an increase from 3.3 million booked nights in 2020 to 5.1 million nights in 2021. The most common booking, comprising 3.3 million, were in hotels and guesthouses, with hotels comprising 2.5 million of this total.

While the greatest number of bookings were in the greater Reykjavík area, the largest increase was seen in North Iceland, where the number of booked rooms increased by 117.6% from 2020 to 2021.

These bookings will likely increase even more in 2022. As reported, Íslandsbanki predicts that over a million tourists will visit Iceland this year, and that this number will continue to climb.

“The short term projections undeniably worsen with the rise of the Omicron variant in the country and elsewhere,” Landsbanki forecast. “Despite this, we believe that people’s desire to travel is significant and people are traveling despite the virus. Iceland is seen as a tourist destination in the eyes of many as it is possible to travel within the country without engaging in close contact with others.”

As such, Íslandsbanki believes the number of tourists in 2022 will cross the one million mark again.