The millionth tourist arrives in Iceland in August

The millionth tourist in 2016 will arrive in Iceland sometime in August.  A total of 1.7 million tourists are expected to visit Iceland in 2016. 

“By the end of July, we expect 930,000 tourist to have arrived in Iceland through the Keflavík International airport (KEF). According to our projections we estimate that 240,000 tourists will come through the airport in August. So we believe the millionth tourist will come through around August 10th,” says Guðni Sigurðsson, spokesman for Isavia.

These number do not include tourists that enter the country through other ports, including ships and other airports, but 97% of all tourists visiting Iceland arrive through KEF.

Last year, the millionth tourist arrived in September, but 1.3 million tourists visited Iceland in 2015, an increase of 200,000 from the previous year, but 1.1 million tourists came to Iceland in 2014.

1.7 million tourists expected in 2016

According to Sigurðsson, Isavia projects that 1.7 million tourists will come through KEF in 2016, a 30% increase from the previous year.

As we reported earlier this week, the population of Iceland is now 336,060 people, so that's five tourists for every Icelander. 

The total number of passengers transferring through KEF airport in 2016 is expected to be 6.7 million, compared to 4.9 million in 2015, a 37% increase year-over-year. “We expect the number of passengers going through Keflavik airport to continue to grow next year,” Sigurðsson says.