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Published on : Wednesday, December 9, 2020
The Icelandic Travel Industry Association is of the opinion that Icelandic Tourism is likely to take three to four years to regain the balance it had before the coronavirus pandemic despite the hopes awakened by the anti-COVID-19 vaccine that tourism, among other sectors, will be brought back to the pre-pandemic situation soon.
Jóhannes Þór Skúlason, CEO, Icelandic Travel Industry Association shared the opinion in a statement and mentioned the Christmas and New Years’ Market is completely out as of now and tourism in December this year is slow as compared to last year. However, he believes that the coming year would be better and emphasised that several factors should be taken into account while talking about next summer, including the reopening of Schengen borders.
He mentioned that the projections are being checked and according to the ones in Icelandair’s renaissance plan and the ones made by the Central Bank of Iceland, nearly 750,000-950,000 tourists might come to Iceland in 2021. He also stated that the current situation has pushed people to search on the internet for more travel options. He said at present it is not only about the permission to travel but also about the affordability. He shared that economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic would hit a large number of persons who less likely to travel due to unemployment.
In November, authorities in Iceland announced that they would prolong the introduced border measures, imposed to stop the further spread of COVID-19 pandemic and will keep borders closed until February 1, 2021. Last month, Iceland’s Health Ministry also revealed that the country would offer free of charge COVID-19 tests for travellers from December 1 until January 31.