Almost 8 million tourists to Iceland since 2008
Photo: Iceland Monitor/Árni Sæberg
Iceland has welcomed more tourists in the nine years since 2008 than in the entire preceding period of 59 years, i.e. since records began.
In the years 1949-2007, a total of just under 7,000,000 foreign tourists visited Iceland. Since 2008, the figure is just under 8,000,000.
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Forecasts suggest that 2016 alone will see a record 1.7 million tourists visit Iceland – up a massive 38% on 2015. Growth is forecast to slow only slightly next year, with 2.2 million tourists expected in 2017 (+26.6%).
The left graph shows the number of tourists (in '000s) visiting Iceland each year since 1949. The right graph gives total numbers in the period 1949-2007 and 2008-2016. Source: Arion banki
