A burning question

France is the country in the world visited by the highest number of tourists, 80 million a year. The French are almost 70 million. Spain comes second, the population is 50 million, but the tourists are 75 million, a million more than visit the USA where 340 million live in a huge country. There are almost 400 thousand of us and over 2 million tourists are expected to come here this year. The percentage of tourists to population is a lot higher here than in the three countries most popular with tourists in the world. The big question is how many tourists we can welcome so everyone feels good, our guests, us locals and our nature. In the grand scheme of things, Iceland is a small country, but if things are done right, the tourists can be spread more around the country, and throughout the year not just over the summertime, there is a bright future for Icelandic tourism.

Travellers at Kerið in Grímsnes
Where to?
She just arrived in Iceland for the first time, all the way from Taiwan, and planned to travel the south of Iceland in five days
The natural pool in Landmannalaugar
Looking forward to travelling all over Iceland by horse, here all the way from München
Optimists, arrived here from Chennai, India, and intend to cycle the circle around Iceland in three weeks. Not knowing much about the country or the people, they were worried about the wind, which many cyclists complain about

Photographs & text: Páll Stefánsson
Iceland 14/08/2023 : A7R IV, RX1R II : FE 2.8/100mm GM, FE 2.8/90mm, 2.0/35mm Z