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Seungmin Lee

Eddy

English 10

11 December 2018

Iceland Tourism

Dramatic, wild, inspirational. These words describe a place that more tourists have

discovered, but many more people have not. Iceland is the best choice to go on a vacation for

winter. Iceland is a small island nation in the northern part of Europe located between the

Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. “Eleven percent of the country is covered in glacial

ice and it’s surrounded by water” (National Geographic Kids, 2018). Due to this, global warming

will lead to rising water levels and melting ice will have a devastating impact on the country. It

has been thought that when a large volcano erupted about 7 million years ago, Iceland was first

formed (Shahin, 2013). Therefore, Iceland is a volcanic island and experiences severe volcanic

activities. In 2010, there was a volcano eruption from Eyjafjallajokull volcano; the high ash into

the atmosphere and disrupted Europe’s traffic about two weeks. The first settlers of the island

have been known as the Irish monks or “the Papar” who have been leaving books behind to pass

onto the next generation; this is referred by the ​Landnámabók, which are the Book of Settlements

(Shahin, 2013). Since ​ 2010, tourists have been increasing until 2017 and started to decrease

slowly.

Tourists have been increasing since 2010. According to a ​Gamma​ article, “​Tourist

arrivals in Iceland have increased fivefold since 2010 to 2.2 million in 2017” and the nature of

Iceland has been the main purpose of their visit to Iceland according to 83% of tourists
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(Hauksson, 2018). In Iceland, there are four national parks that are under conservation and

protection, and there are more than 80 species of animals that are preserved in the national parks.

Also, Iceland is a country where ice glaciers and volcanoes co-exist. “Vatnajökull, or Vatna

Glacier, is an extensive ice field in southeastern Iceland, which covers 3,200 square miles with

an average ice thickness of more than 3,000 feet” (National Geographic Kids, 2018). Also, there

are more than 200 volcanoes existing in Iceland, and the country has one-third of the world’s

total lava flow. Therefore, one tenth of the country is covered by cooled lava beds and glaciers.

However, there are also advantages of having so many volcanoes: They can be used for

electricity and heating. Volcanoes can produce hydroelectric power and geothermal water

reserves. Because of this, there are many tourist resources that use this power from volcanoes

such as geothermal spas. Hence, the temperature of Iceland is not cold as many people think.

“The Gulf Stream current and warm southwesterly winds make the climate more moderate and

pleasant than one might expect from a northern country” (National Geographic Kids, 2018).

Because of this, more than 270,000 tourists visit Iceland each year. Increase in tourism might be

beneficial to the country as

However, the tourists in Iceland have started to decrease since 2017.

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Reference List

Hauksson, H. (Ed.) (2018). Tourism in Iceland. ​Gamma.​ Retrieved from

https://www.gamma.is/media/skjol/Gamma-Tourism.pdf

National Geographic Kids. (2018, April 04). Countries of the world: Iceland.​ Newsela.​ Retrieved

from ​https://newsela.com/read/elem-country-iceland/id/40393/

Shahin, I. (20​13, June 25). The history of Iceland. ​Guide to Iceland.​ Retrieved from

https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/history-of-iceland#2.3