Foreign Card Spending

The Central Bank of Iceland publishes the monthly turnover of foreign-issued payment cards used in Iceland. That is what this page calls tourist spending. It captures most of what visitors pay for while in the country, from hotels and restaurants to car rental, fuel, tours and shopping. It does not capture cash, purchases made before the trip such as flights and prepaid packages booked through foreign operators, or spending by visitors who pay with an Icelandic card. The true economic footprint of tourism is therefore larger than the card figures, but the card series is the most timely and consistent measure available and moves closely with arrivals.

Nominal values are the amounts as recorded, in Icelandic krónur. Real values deflate each month by Statistics Iceland's consumer price index so that growth is not inflated by rising prices. Iceland has had inflation well above its two and a half percent target for several years, so the gap between nominal and real growth matters: a nominal increase can be a real decline. The toggle on the chart switches between the two views.

Spending per visitor divides card turnover by foreign passenger arrivals in the same month. It is a useful indicator of how much each visitor contributes, but it is sensitive to the exchange rate: when the króna strengthens, a visitor with a fixed foreign budget buys fewer krónur, and the figure falls even if behaviour is unchanged. Winter visitors tend to spend more per head than summer visitors because they stay in hotels more and travel in smaller groups, so comparing a month with the same month a year earlier is more meaningful than comparing across seasons.