Iceland will open its borders to international tourists by mid June. It is one of the safest country to visit regarding the worldwide pandemic situation and many of us are ready to rediscover this beautiful island or to visit it for the first time. During the quarantine period team of Inspire by Iceland – tourism board of the country, made a lot of effort to promote Iceland. ,,My Iceland dream list,, is just one of their promotional projects and I have made couple of questions for Inspire by Iceland team where we are discussing about current situation and their future plans.
Tell us something about how you are promoting tourism of Iceland in current situation, during quarantine, with travel bans and closed borders:
In order to show people what they can dream about and what they can look forward to doing, when the time is right to travel again, we are sharing My Iceland Dream List on our social channels. For inspiration, we have for example asked the First Lady of Iceland and Ragga Ragnars (known as Gunnhild from the Vikings) to share their favorite locations in Iceland. Furthermore, while we are dreaming about travelling, we are using the hashtag #icelandathome on social media.
Do you have some virtual tour projects, where future tourists can explore Iceland from their chairs?
I would recommend that people follow Inspired by Iceland on social media to experience Iceland from their chairs which hopefully inspires them to come and visit one day.
What is your future plan of tourism promotion, and how you think that this situation will change tourism of Iceland?
Over recent years we have focused our marketing on responsible travel behavior and encouraging people to travel to Iceland all year round and experience different parts of our beautiful island. We will still carry on with this message. Covid-19 will have dramatic effect on tourism in Iceland as the rest of the world resulting in fewer people travelling. But Iceland has established itself as a world known destination and numbers show that guests are very happy with their visit so I am optimistic about the future of tourism in Iceland.
Which destinations in Iceland you can recommend to future tourists when travel ban is over?
Iceland is divided into seven geographical regions: West, Westfjords, North, East, South, Reykjanes and the Reykjavík Capital Area. Each region differs slightly with respect to both cutlure and landscape but all have something great to offer in terms of nature, activities and tourism service. Here you can read about the different regions of Iceland https://inspiredbyiceland.com/region/all
Regarding tourist routes then The Diamond Circle is the most famous one in Iceland. It´s located in the South with beautiful nature gems like Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir geothermal area, Þingvellir national park and more. There are also many more interesting stops along the traditional circle route.
Another famous tourist route is Ringroad 1 which is basically the main road that circles the whole island. It has made the list of top ten road trips by Instagram users and is a very popular route to experience the different parts of Iceland.
Launching in July 2020, the Diamond Circle is a magnificent 250km circuit in the Northeast of Iceland, which includes some of the most stunning sights and spots for unearthly landscapes. The Diamond Circle has 5 key destinations. These include the historical and picturesque Goðafoss, the moonlike blue and green landscapes of Lake Mývatn nature paradise, the uncontrollable white energy of Dettifoss the most powerful waterfall of Europe, the crescent-shaped wonder of Ásbyrgi canyon and Húsavík the buzzing whale capital of Iceland with the deep blue seas ahead. https://www.northiceland.is/diamondcircle
Although the West Fjords are adorned with stunning landscape, they have long been the Iceland’s most undisturbed region, largely due to the fact that the Ring-Road 1 skips the region completely. But later this year with the opening of a new tunnel the Westfjords and West Iceland will launch a new tourist route, a new ring-road that will span just over 950 km and take you on an adventure to some of Iceland’s best kept secrets– called The Westfjords Way. The spectacular Westfjords Way winding road is 950-km (590-mile) long and starts in Norðurárdalur valley, Borgarfjörður, and takes you to the Dalir region in West Iceland. https://www.westfjords.is/en/moya/toy/index/index/ring-road-2
