Summary
January 2022 was part of Iceland's winter season, prime time for northern lights and ice cave tours. Foreign guests recorded 137,520 overnight stays in hotels, compared to 7,700 in January 2021—a +1686.0% change year-over-year.
National hotel occupancy stood at 28.1%, up 19.3 percentage points from 8.8% in 2021. Foreign card spending totaled 7.5 billion ISK (+424.0% YoY).
January 2022 in context
Foreign hotel nights for the year to date, January through January, reached 137,520, up 1686.0% on the same period of 2021. Within 2022, January ranked 12th of the twelve months by foreign nights. Against the average for January over the five preceding years (excluding the pandemic years 2020 and 2021), this month came in behind by 36.7%. Compared with January 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, foreign nights were down 44.6%.
United Kingdom was the largest source market with 30.4% of foreign hotel nights, and the top three markets together accounted for 62.5%. Hotel occupancy of 28.1% 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 January 2022, ranked by overnight stays:
| Rank | Market | Nights 2022 | Nights 2021 | Change | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 41,873 | 414 | +10014.3% | 30.4% |
| 2 | United States of America | 32,244 | 2,421 | +1231.8% | 23.4% |
| 3 | Germany | 11,849 | 570 | +1978.8% | 8.6% |
| 4 | France | 8,303 | 204 | +3970.1% | 6.0% |
| 5 | Netherlands | 6,652 | 49 | +13475.5% | 4.8% |
| 6 | Spain | 4,248 | 330 | +1187.3% | 3.1% |
| 7 | Italy | 4,227 | 661 | +539.5% | 3.1% |
| 8 | Switzerland (incl. Liechtenstein) | 2,737 | 182 | +1403.8% | 2.0% |
| 9 | China | 2,711 | 46 | +5793.5% | 2.0% |
| 10 | Denmark | 2,680 | 567 | +372.7% | 1.9% |
Hotel Occupancy by Region
Regional hotel occupancy rates for January 2022:
| Region | Occupancy 2022 | Occupancy 2021 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Region | 36.5% | 8.5% | +28.0 pp |
| Reykjanes | 31.9% | 13.2% | +18.7 pp |
| Total | 28.1% | 8.8% | +19.3 pp |
| South | 21.7% | 7.5% | +14.2 pp |
| North | 12.6% | 11.9% | +0.7 pp |
| East | 10.9% | 4.8% | +6.1 pp |
| West & Westfjords | 8.7% | 5.3% | +3.4 pp |
Foreign Card Spending
Total foreign card turnover in January 2022 was 7,543.43 million ISK (7.54 billion ISK), compared to 1,439.64 million ISK in January 2021.
This represents a +424.0% year-over-year change.
Domestic Tourism
Icelandic residents recorded 29,054 overnight stays in hotels in January 2022, up 12.9% from 25,733 in 2021.
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