The Contemporary Tourist

Intelligence

Tourism Intelligence Dashboard

ISL

Iceland

Europe & Central Asia

Iceland is a tourism destination in Europe & Central Asia. This dashboard presents the best available tourism indicators and historical arrivals data from official sources.

Compare Iceland →Browse all countries

International Tourist Arrivals

2,279,865

Latest verified value · 2024

International Tourism Receipts

$3.2B

Latest verified value · 2024

Tourist Nights

10.2M

Latest verified value · 2025

TCTI Destination Profile

Growing tourism destination

Iceland has experienced rapid long-term tourism growth, while tourism demand is distributed relatively evenly throughout the year. This profile is calculated from the best available annual and monthly tourism records currently held by TCTI.

Executive tourism profile for Iceland

Profile confidence

100

/ 100

Confidence reflects the intelligence modules currently supported by compatible source data.

Growth profile

Rapid growth

Seasonality profile

Low seasonality

What this means

  • Rapid visitor growth may increase demand for accommodation, transport, infrastructure, and destination management.
  • A relatively even annual distribution may support more consistent employment and infrastructure use.

The destination profile combines TCTI's available growth and seasonality intelligence. Confidence reflects whether both compatible annual-arrivals and monthly-tourist-night datasets are available.

Tourism Intelligence

Executive summary

A concise interpretation of the strongest official tourism records currently available for Iceland.

5 indicators available
Europe & Central Asia
High income

Iceland is a tourism destination in Europe & Central Asia. This dashboard presents the best available tourism indicators and historical arrivals data from official sources.

International tourist arrivals were 2,279,865 in 2024. International tourism receipts were $3.2B in 2024. Recorded tourist nights reached 10.2M in 2025. Tourism's direct contribution to GDP was 8.7% in 2024. Tourism's direct share of employment was 15.8% in 2024.

The figures shown here are drawn from OECD, UN Tourism, and Eurostat. Reporting years may differ between indicators because TCTI displays the strongest verified or published value currently available for each measure.

Derived Intelligence

Tourism Seasonality

How international tourist nights were distributed throughout 2025 in Iceland.

TCTI Insight

Relatively balanced

Confidence

95%

Iceland's international tourist nights were most concentrated in August, which accounted for 16% of the annual total. The three busiest months—July, August, September—accounted for 43.3% of annual international tourist nights.

Peak month

August

16% of annual international nights

Quietest month

January

3.7% of annual international nights

Top three months

43.3%

July, August, September

Summer share

43.2%

Share occurring during June, July, and August

Winter share

13.3%

Share occurring during December, January, and February

Monthly distribution

International tourist nights by month

Annual total 8.8M

Jan

3.7%

328.6K

Feb

5.5%

490.6K

Mar

6.4%

563K

Apr

5.5%

486K

May

6.7%

593.8K

Jun

11.7%

1M

Jul

15.5%

1.4M

Aug

16%

1.4M

Sep

11.8%

1M

Oct

8.2%

722.4K

Nov

5%

438.4K

Dec

4.1%

358.6K

What this means

  • Higher seasonal concentration can increase pressure on infrastructure, accommodation, and local services during peak periods.
  • Quieter and shoulder months may offer opportunities to distribute visitor demand more evenly throughout the year.

Seasonality is calculated from a complete set of 12 monthly international tourist-night observations. The seasonality score uses a normalized concentration index, where 0 represents an even monthly distribution and 100 represents complete concentration in one month.

Derived Intelligence

Tourism growth

How international tourist arrivals changed between 2015 and 2024.

TCTI Growth Insight

Rapid growth

Confidence

95%

Iceland's international tourist arrivals increased by 76.9% between 2015 and 2024. This is equivalent to an average annual growth rate of +6.5%. The sharpest annual decline was 75.7% in 2020.

Total growth

+76.9%

2015 to 2024

Average annual growth

+6.5%

Compound annual growth rate

Starting arrivals

1.3M

Reported in 2015

Latest arrivals

2.3M

Reported in 2024

Largest annual increase

+146.1%

Change recorded in 2022

Largest annual decline

-75.7%

Change recorded in 2020

What this means

  • Long-term growth trends can indicate changes in destination popularity.
  • Growth should be interpreted alongside seasonality, visitor spending, and tourism dependence.

Growth is calculated using the earliest and latest available international arrivals data held by TCTI. Results may reflect gaps or methodological changes in the underlying series.

Key Tourism Indicators

Tourism performance at a glance

Verified tourism indicators currently available for Iceland. Reporting years may differ by dataset.

2024

International Tourist Arrivals

2,279,865

OECD · 2024

OECD Inbound Tourism

VerifiedCurrent
2024

International Tourism Receipts

$3.2B

UN Tourism · 2024

International Tourism Receipts

VerifiedCurrent
2025

Tourist Nights

10.2M

Eurostat · 2025

Tourist Nights at Accommodation Establishments

VerifiedCurrent
2024

Tourism Direct Share of GDP

8.7%

OECD · 2024

OECD Key Tourism Economic Indicators

VerifiedCurrent
2024

Tourism Employment Share

15.8%

OECD · 2024

OECD Key Tourism Economic Indicators

VerifiedCurrent

Rankings & Comparisons

How Iceland compares

Positions use each country's best currently available official record. Years can differ, so use these as directional benchmarks rather than synchronized league tables.

Data Availability

83% dashboard coverage

5 of 6 dashboard indicators currently have usable official data for Iceland.

5 current0 reporting lag0 historical

Available

  • ✓International Tourist Arrivals · 2024 · Current
  • ✓International Tourism Receipts · 2024 · Current
  • ✓Tourist Nights · 2025 · Current
  • ✓Tourism Direct Share of GDP · 2024 · Current
  • ✓Tourism Employment Share · 2024 · Current

Not Yet Available

  • ○Resident Tourism Trips

Official Sources

Data sources used for Iceland

These organizations and datasets provide the indicators currently displayed on this country dashboard.

✓

Eurostat

Latest displayed year: 2025

Official

Indicators

  • • Tourist Nights

Datasets

  • Tourist Nights at Accommodation Establishments
✓

OECD

Latest displayed year: 2024

Official

Indicators

  • • International Tourist Arrivals
  • • Tourism Direct Share of GDP
  • • Tourism Employment Share

Datasets

  • OECD Inbound Tourism
  • OECD Key Tourism Economic Indicators
✓

UN Tourism

Latest displayed year: 2024

Official

Indicators

  • • International Tourism Receipts

Datasets

  • International Tourism Receipts
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Historical Trend

International arrivals over time

Annual international tourist arrivals reported for Iceland. Values are shown in millions.

Source: OECDYears: 2015–2024Annual data

Dataset: OECD Inbound Tourism

About the Data

Best available official data

TCTI evaluates available tourism records by reporting status, year, source priority, official-source status, and publication history. The dashboard displays the strongest available record while preserving historical observations and alternative sources in the database.