From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism

Sæþórsdóttir, Anna Dóra; Hall, C. Michael; Wendt, Margrét

doi:10.3390/environments7080059

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From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism

by

Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir

^1,*

,

C. Michael Hall

^2,3

and

Margrét Wendt

¹

Department of Geography & Tourism, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, 102 Reykjavík, Iceland

²

Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

³

Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University Helsingborg, SE-251 08 Helsingborg, Sweden

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Environments 2020, 7(8), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059

Submission received: 10 July 2020 / Revised: 25 July 2020 / Accepted: 30 July 2020 / Published: 3 August 2020

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Abstract

Overtourism has emerged as a common concept to describe the perceived negative impacts that large numbers of tourists can have on destinations. Iceland is one of the destinations which has been most associated with the concept of overtourism. Tourism in Iceland grew rapidly from 2010 to 2019, much higher than in most other countries, with Iceland reaching a ranking as high as thirteenth on a list of countries with the highest ratio of tourists per inhabitant. The increase in visitors to the country has had various impacts on Iceland’s economy, society and environment. This paper provides an overview of the different ways in which overtourism has revealed itself at a national level in Iceland. The implications of supposed overtourism are shown to be complex, with management responses limited by their relative focus.

Keywords: overtourism; crowding; growthism; dispersal; temporality; quality; Iceland

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MDPI and ACS Style

Sæþórsdóttir, A.D.; Hall, C.M.; Wendt, M. From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism. Environments 2020, 7, 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059

AMA Style

Sæþórsdóttir AD, Hall CM, Wendt M. From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism. Environments. 2020; 7(8):59. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sæþórsdóttir, Anna Dóra, C. Michael Hall, and Margrét Wendt. 2020. "From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism" Environments 7, no. 8: 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059

APA Style

Sæþórsdóttir, A. D., Hall, C. M., & Wendt, M. (2020). From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism. Environments, 7(8), 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7080059

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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From Boiling to Frozen? The Rise and Fall of International Tourism to Iceland in the Era of Overtourism

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