Iceland has become a destination on fire the past few years, which makes me appreciate my 2007 birthday trip even more. I was there when it was still incredibly expensive, before their financial crisis, before their currency fell, before Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, and before tourism exploded, driving up the number of visitors to unprecedented numbers.
According to the Icelandic Tourist Board’s May 2016 report (PDF), visitors to Iceland have doubled since 2010, with an average yearly growth of 21.6%. That’s mind-boggling. There were 1,289,140 tourists in 2015, and Iceland’s population is only 323,002 (2013)! I can only imagine what kind of impact that’s making to their already-fragile environment on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic.
I would like to return to Iceland with Paulo, I know he’d love it. I’ve also heard from friends that it won’t be like how I remembered it. But it’s only becoming more popular, not less, so the longer we wait the more its unique wildness is threatened to be roped off to the public as Iceland tries to prevent further soil erosion.
On that sobering note, here are some tips from Responsible Travel about being a responsible tourist in Iceland:
- Avoid the novelty of eating whale meat (very few Icelanders do, but tourists are driving up the demand);
- Don’t eat puffin, respect puffin habitats;
- Preserve the cleanliness of the geothermal pools by washing thoroughly (minus bathing suit) before entering;
- Drive only designated roads;
- No off-roading, even in a 4WD.
Last year I vowed to edit and upload more photos from previous trips, to fill the albums. I’ve been slow to do that in 2016, but here’s another round of Iceland photos added from the archives. You can find many more photos in the trip album: Iceland 2007.
Album: Iceland 2007
