Summary
April 2020 was part of Iceland's spring shoulder season with Easter holiday travel. Foreign guests recorded 3,620 overnight stays in hotels, compared to 235,536 in April 2019—a -98.5% change year-over-year.
National hotel occupancy stood at 3.5%, down 45.7 percentage points from 49.2% in 2019. Foreign card spending totaled 0.4 billion ISK (-97.3% YoY).
April 2020 in context
Foreign hotel nights for the year to date, January through April, reached 727,606, down 36.5% on the same period of 2019. Within 2020, April ranked 12th of the twelve months by foreign nights. Against the average for April over the five preceding years, this month came in behind by 98.3%.
United States of America was the largest source market with 26.4% of foreign hotel nights, and the top three markets together accounted for 51.9%. Hotel occupancy of 3.5% means that share of available rooms was sold across the month; this is typical of Iceland's low season, when many rural hotels close and demand concentrates in Reykjavík. Spending figures are foreign card turnover reported by the Central Bank and exclude cash and purchases made before arrival.
Foreign Overnight Stays by Source Market
The top source markets for April 2020, ranked by overnight stays:
| Rank | Market | Nights 2020 | Nights 2019 | Change | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States of America | 957 | 68,569 | -98.6% | 26.4% |
| 2 | Canada | 610 | 5,282 | -88.5% | 16.9% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 310 | 37,451 | -99.2% | 8.6% |
| 4 | Germany | 304 | 20,409 | -98.5% | 8.4% |
| 5 | Other Asian countries | 240 | 9,169 | -97.4% | 6.6% |
| 6 | Other European countries | 218 | 205 | +6.3% | 6.0% |
| 7 | Lithuania | 126 | 362 | -65.2% | 3.5% |
| 8 | Russia | 105 | 1,259 | -91.7% | 2.9% |
| 9 | Spain | 101 | 6,974 | -98.6% | 2.8% |
| 10 | Netherlands | 83 | 6,170 | -98.7% | 2.3% |
Hotel Occupancy by Region
Regional hotel occupancy rates for April 2020:
| Region | Occupancy 2020 | Occupancy 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reykjanes | 9.8% | 60.8% | -51.0 pp |
| West & Westfjords | 3.6% | 33.2% | -29.6 pp |
| Total | 3.5% | 49.2% | -45.7 pp |
| Capital Region | 3.0% | 56.5% | -53.5 pp |
| South | 2.7% | 44.6% | -41.9 pp |
| North | 2.6% | 36.0% | -33.4 pp |
| East | 1.5% | 28.0% | -26.5 pp |
Foreign Card Spending
Total foreign card turnover in April 2020 was 390.05 million ISK (0.39 billion ISK), compared to 14,609.48 million ISK in April 2019.
This represents a -97.3% year-over-year change.
Domestic Tourism
Icelandic residents recorded 6,074 overnight stays in hotels in April 2020, down 83.6% from 37,054 in 2019.
Data Sources
- Overnight Stays: Statistics Iceland (Hagstofa Íslands) — foreign and domestic guest nights in registered hotels
- Occupancy Rates: Statistics Iceland — room occupancy as % of available hotel capacity
- Card Spending: Central Bank of Iceland (Seðlabanki Íslands) — foreign debit/credit card turnover