American Tourists Will Outnumber Locals in Iceland by 2017
When it comes to vacation spots, Iceland ticks all of the boxes: it's easy to get to, most locals speak English, and there's something for everyone from spa-goers to outdoor adventurers to history buffs.
The Northern European island has become an "it" destination as of recent, and according to data from the Icelandic tourism board, 1.6 million people have traveled there so far this year. To put things in perspective, the total number of people who reside in Iceland is approximately 332,000 people.
Leading the tourism charge are Americans with 325,000 U.S. travelers making the trip in 2016. Those number are only growing, and set to eclipse the local population next year.
Certainly, those tourists are there to see the country's Instagram-worthy glaciers, black-sand beaches, and tiny horses, but it doesn't hurt that Icelandair and Wow Air both offer cheap, relatively quick flights from the States to Reykjavik, for sometimes as low as $99 one way from major cities on the east coast like New York, Boston, and Baltimore. They also facilitate stopovers, a popular extended layover program, that allows American passengers to spend a day or two in Iceland before continuing on to their final destination elsewhere in Europe.
While beating the crowds is getting harder by the day, you'll have better luck visiting in winter, and venturing outside of Reykjavik, though with the popularity of the Northern Lights, that might not be the case for long.
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