Summary
January 2025 was part of Iceland's winter season, prime time for northern lights and ice cave tours. Foreign guests recorded 256,429 overnight stays in hotels, compared to 255,083 in January 2024—a +0.5% change year-over-year.
National hotel occupancy stood at 46.9%, up 2.5 percentage points from 44.4% in 2024. Foreign card spending totaled 19.1 billion ISK (+12.3% YoY).
January 2025 in context
Foreign hotel nights for the year to date, January through January, reached 256,429, up 0.5% on the same period of 2024. Within 2025, 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 ahead by 9.3%. Compared with January 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, foreign nights were up 3.3%.
United Kingdom was the largest source market with 24.3% of foreign hotel nights, and the top three markets together accounted for 59.3%. Hotel occupancy of 46.9% 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 2025, ranked by overnight stays:
| Rank | Market | Nights 2025 | Nights 2024 | Change | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 62,388 | 71,970 | -13.3% | 24.3% |
| 2 | United States of America | 62,002 | 65,312 | -5.1% | 24.2% |
| 3 | China | 27,626 | 13,912 | +98.6% | 10.8% |
| 4 | Germany | 16,097 | 17,289 | -6.9% | 6.3% |
| 5 | France | 13,757 | 14,505 | -5.2% | 5.4% |
| 6 | Other Asian countries | 8,275 | 6,185 | +33.8% | 3.2% |
| 7 | Italy | 6,669 | 7,369 | -9.5% | 2.6% |
| 8 | Spain | 5,542 | 5,114 | +8.4% | 2.2% |
| 9 | Netherlands | 4,981 | 8,028 | -38.0% | 1.9% |
| 10 | Australia | 4,318 | 3,529 | +22.4% | 1.7% |
Hotel Occupancy by Region
Regional hotel occupancy rates for January 2025:
| Region | Occupancy 2025 | Occupancy 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Region | 62.2% | 63.4% | -1.2 pp |
| Total | 46.9% | 44.4% | +2.5 pp |
| Reykjanes | 46.4% | 38.2% | +8.2 pp |
| South | 41.4% | 36.6% | +4.8 pp |
| East | 17.2% | 9.5% | +7.7 pp |
| West & Westfjords | 17.0% | 14.5% | +2.5 pp |
| North | 13.4% | 10.2% | +3.2 pp |
Foreign Card Spending
Total foreign card turnover in January 2025 was 19,100.11 million ISK (19.10 billion ISK), compared to 17,003.41 million ISK in January 2024.
This represents a +12.3% year-over-year change.
Domestic Tourism
Icelandic residents recorded 37,715 overnight stays in hotels in January 2025, up 14.6% from 32,907 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