Almost one third of tourists visiting Iceland are Americans, Kjarninn reports. American tourists accounted for 31.2% of departures of foreign nationals from Keflavík Airport in May of this year. This is an increase in 18.3% from the number of US nationals who visited Iceland last May.
The growth may be attributed in part to an increase in the number of direct flights from the US to Iceland. Icelandair, for example, just began operating flights to its 23rd US destination: San Francisco. Direct flights to Iceland now operate from most of the United States’ biggest cities, including on the west coast.
The figures come from a report published yesterday by the Icelandic Tourist Board, which indicate that tourism in Iceland is still on the rise. The number of foreign nationals departing from Keflavík increased over 13.2 percent between May 2017 and May 2018.
Although the number of tourists continues to rise, the rate of growth has decreased considerably. While the number of departures between January and May increased by 46.5% between 2016-2017, it has only increased 5.6% between 2017-2018.
The second largest group by nationality were German nationals (7.2%), followed by UK nationals (6.4%). The largest proportional increase is among Polish nationals, who were 77% more in May of this year than last. While British tourists have decreased by 6.3% from the same period last year, the number of tourists from Asia and Eastern Europe is on the rise.
