At the beginning of 2024, tourists who intended to visit Iceland were in for an unpleasant surprise: the country introduced a residence tax for non-citizens. It will have to be paid regardless of whether guests want to spend the night in a hotel or hope to stay at a campsite. How much will those who enter the territory of Iceland have to pay now?
Well forgotten old
Residence tax is not a new thing. It was already paid in Iceland before, but with the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the actual stoppage of the tourism industry in Europe, it was canceled. Then, this type of payment was not returned for more than a year due to the “resuscitation” of the tourist business. But from January 1, 2024, they again resorted to the time-tested practice.
Not rubber
Although the financial side may seem to be the primary motivation for introducing this payment, the main reason is different. The government approved the decision since Iceland has been suffering from an influx of tourists in recent years. In just three summer months of 2023, the country received more than 800,000 tourists. To understand the scale, it is worth comparing this figure with the population of Iceland itself, which is 364 thousand people (according to official data as of 2022). So, only in the summer, 2.5 times more people come to the country than live here.
This causes colossal social and environmental consequences and significantly increases the load on the infrastructure. Since the number of tourists in 2023 is already 25% higher than in 2022, the government has legitimate fears that next year, the figure may increase even more.
To somehow stabilize the situation, a whole strategy was adopted to reduce the negative impact of excessive tourism, and the introduction of a tax is only one of the decisions according to this plan.
How much do you have to pay?
All tourists will have to pay, regardless of the planned vacation category:
– 3.98 EUR for staying in a hotel, boarding house, or other apartments;
– 6.63 EUR – cruise ship tourists, even if they are going to another country;
– 1.99 EUR – the least that will have to be paid by those who use the campsites.
It is noted that the payment is one-time, but is paid for each person in the room or the car at the campsite. It is charged if a person stays at least one night in the territory of the country.
However, not everyone sees the sense in such implementation. Representatives of the tourism business are worried that the return of the tax may harm tourists visiting Iceland because the cost of tourism in the country is already high.
