From 300 thousand tourists a year to well over a million in a couple of years will mean gigantic problems in a tiny country. And so it came to pass… PIC George Atanassov
About time some foreign journalist saw the light. A recent piece in the world-famous travel magazine Condé Nast is pretty much an echo of all we´ve been saying for years.
The piece, What Not to Do in Iceland, is well written and informative and even a bit daring. But above all written by a journalist that visited Iceland ten years ago when the tourists were as few as the remaining Puffin birds in the country. Perhaps the first journalist with some perspective and honesty. Ten years ago you could visit all out natural, and unnatural, treasures without stepping on someone´s toes or jamming through throngs of groups at every step. Not anymore.
Going from 300 thousands tourists a year to well over a million in a couple of years will strain everything in a tiny country with a small population. And so it has. It is now projected we will need tens of thousands of foreign workers in the next few years simply to man all the positions needed in tourism.
Jobs aside, the toll on this fair land is immense. The government takes no care of anything. All we have are tourist companies with dollars in their eyes caring only about profits. Anybody can go anywhere and indeed foreign tourist think nothing of driving over pristine land leaving marks for centuries.
Team Total Iceland feels it necessary to repeat what we have said before: Visit before it all goes to shit. And it is well on the way already.
