Some Icelandic tourism companies are offering customers to pay for their tours in foreign currencies if they pay with a credit card this summer. Credit card company Kortathjónustan first enabled companies to offer this service in 2007.
“Some tourism companies have loans in euros. The tourist industry advertises the price of its tours in euros and other foreign currencies on their websites,” managing director of Kortathjónustan Jóhannes Ingi Kolbeinsson told Fréttabladid.
“When a tourist comes to Iceland, he or she doesn’t know what has been happening with the ISK and just wants to have the tariffs in euros and pay with a credit card,” Kolbeinsson added.
Whale watching company North Sailing in Húsavík—Iceland’s “whale watching capital” in the northeast of the country—is one of the companies that will be offering this service in summer.
Managing director of North Sailing Hördur Sigurbjarnarson said customers can pay with the currency of their choice but the main emphasis will be on euros. “It is first and foremost convenient for tourists but also for companies that have loans in foreign currencies.”
“In the past few years we have been taking loans in foreign currencies rather than the ISK like most other companies and therefore it is a welcome change to be able to charge for our service in a currency other than the ISK,” Sigurbjarnarson added.
Another company taking advantage of this new opportunity is Katla Travel. One of the company’s owners Pétur Óskarsson said Katla Travel only uses the ISK for paying salaries.
