Tour Guides Want Help With Improving Conditions

Tour guides in Iceland say they need help in being able to improve conditions at various locations around the country. This includes setting up more signs warning tourists of the dangers that await them at certain places.

The misadventures of certain tourists in Iceland have been dominating headlines in recent weeks. Whether walking on ice floes at Jökulsárlón, tempting fate at a beach with a lethal undertow, or deliberately ignoring signs restricting access to Gullfoss, many Icelandic tour guides believe that more needs to be done to inform and improve the safety of tourists in Iceland.

RÚV spoke with a number of tour guides about the issue, all of whom emphasised two areas of importance: setting up more warning signs and improving the maintenance of conditions at popular tourist spots. Hörður Þórhallsson, Managing Director of the Iceland Tourism Task Force, told reporters that they would be submitting a proposal next month on improving conditions at these areas.

Yet even with warning signs in place, and tour guides offering verbal notices of caution, they say, many tourists proceed into danger anyway.

Tourists exceeded 1.3 million in 2015, and those numbers are expected to rise.