Icelanders Set A Travel Record In October

According to a new report by the Icelandic Tourist Board, 72,000 Icelanders travelled in October. This is an absolute record in the number of Icelanders going abroad within a month.

“This confirms that Icelanders behave like other nations, having gradually accumulated their desire to travel has become great,” says Jóhannes Þór Skúlason, executive director of the Tourism Board in an interview with Fréttablaðið.

The Icelandic Tourist Board also reported 159,000 foreigners departed from Keflavík Airport in October 2022. According to Isavia, this is the fourth-biggest number of departures ever. Americans make up the largest number of foreigners visiting Iceland. About a third of tourists that arrived in October came from the USA.

“It’s gradual success and nothing else,” says Jóhannas Þór. “Demand this year has been much greater than expected.” He added that it would take more than one summer to recover from the effects of restrictions brought by the pandemic.

“The problem is and will be multifaceted and concerns both staffing problems and debt problems, but the financial situation of companies will not improve immediately. We expect to be in the same place in 2024 as we were before the pandemic,” he said.