Summary
April 2025 was part of Iceland's spring shoulder season with Easter holiday travel. Foreign guests recorded 326,722 overnight stays in hotels, compared to 270,970 in April 2024—a +20.6% change year-over-year.
National hotel occupancy stood at 56.6%, up 5.5 percentage points from 51.1% in 2024. Foreign card spending totaled 23.5 billion ISK (+10.0% YoY).
April 2025 in context
Foreign hotel nights for the year to date, January through April, reached 1,280,409, up 3.8% on the same period of 2024. Within 2025, April ranked 9th of the twelve months by foreign nights. Against the average for April over the five preceding years (excluding the pandemic years 2020 and 2021), this month came in ahead by 26.9%. Compared with April 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, foreign nights were up 38.7%.
United States of America was the largest source market with 26.4% of foreign hotel nights, and the top three markets together accounted for 49.7%. Hotel occupancy of 56.6% 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 2025, ranked by overnight stays:
| Rank | Market | Nights 2025 | Nights 2024 | Change | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States of America | 86,130 | 79,098 | +8.9% | 26.4% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 48,056 | 42,616 | +12.8% | 14.7% |
| 3 | Germany | 28,155 | 20,221 | +39.2% | 8.6% |
| 4 | France | 17,642 | 15,869 | +11.2% | 5.4% |
| 5 | Spain | 14,948 | 6,607 | +126.2% | 4.6% |
| 6 | China | 13,887 | 10,694 | +29.9% | 4.3% |
| 7 | Italy | 11,744 | 10,087 | +16.4% | 3.6% |
| 8 | Netherlands | 11,447 | 10,603 | +8.0% | 3.5% |
| 9 | Other Asian countries | 11,044 | 8,973 | +23.1% | 3.4% |
| 10 | Switzerland (incl. Liechtenstein) | 7,573 | 5,838 | +29.7% | 2.3% |
Hotel Occupancy by Region
Regional hotel occupancy rates for April 2025:
| Region | Occupancy 2025 | Occupancy 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reykjanes | 62.1% | 60.2% | +1.9 pp |
| Capital Region | 62.0% | 58.9% | +3.1 pp |
| South | 57.7% | 52.6% | +5.1 pp |
| Total | 56.6% | 51.1% | +5.5 pp |
| East | 47.7% | 30.9% | +16.8 pp |
| North | 44.1% | 33.0% | +11.1 pp |
| West & Westfjords | 36.6% | 28.4% | +8.2 pp |
Foreign Card Spending
Total foreign card turnover in April 2025 was 23,476.39 million ISK (23.48 billion ISK), compared to 21,350.74 million ISK in April 2024.
This represents a +10.0% year-over-year change.
Domestic Tourism
Icelandic residents recorded 45,627 overnight stays in hotels in April 2025, down 26.0% from 61,628 in 2024.
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