There’s no doubt that Iceland’s tourism trade has been growing at a rapid pace, but it turns out not be quite as rapid as was thought.
According to a report by Turisti, an Icelandic news website focused on travel and tourism, the 2017 figure of over 2.2 million visitors was likely really under 2 million due to the error, which incuded foreign residents of Iceland as tourits when they returned from trips, and also included passengers who were only changing planes at Keflavik, the country’s main international airport.
A similar deflation of the 2016 figures would show 1.5 million rather than 1.8 million true visitors, but still a big rise over the 450,000 clocked in 2010. Keflavik, just west of the capital, has become a popular transfer point for low-fare travel across the Atlantic operated by Icelandic carriers WOWair and Icelandair.
