Abstract
Iceland has experienced rapid increases in tourism in recent years. This growth earns economic applause, but can come at considerable environmental cost. As Iceland’s unique environment is a drawcard for many tourists, careful management of destinations to ensure a sustainable environment is critical. The Icelandic Government is aware of the need for effective destination management and planning to ensure a sustainable future for tourism development, and the need to couple this with visitor compliance. It is a development that cannot be divorced from the need for environmental sustainability, and responsibility for this lies with all tourism stakeholders. One management tool to assist with such responsibility and compliance in tourism is interpretation: creating and delivering messages to visitors that enhance not only their satisfaction with an experience but also their understanding of it. This paper is based on an evaluation of visitors’ experiences and managers’ perceptions, as is necessary to ensure visitor satisfaction, while determining how best to maintain a sustainable environment. By observing and interviewing visitors, guides, rangers, and managers at Ásbyrgi in the northernmost part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, we were able to discover what sort of information park visitors want to receive, what park managers want to convey, and the preferred way to deliver that information. Overall, most visitors and guides were satisfied with the interpretation in Ásbyrgi and preferred information provided verbally by guides or rangers over other types, such as on signs or in electronic format. Visitors want information about the unique geology and cultural history, as well as directional instructions for hiking trails. Managers want to create an accessible space in which visitors comply with instructions about safety and environmental sustainability. These findings can assist tourism management in Ásbyrgi, and other nature-based destinations, particularly in terms of sustainability of the natural environment.
Highlights
The tourism industry in Iceland is of significant economic importance to the country, and the country’s natural environment is a strong drawcard for tourists [1,2,3]
This study focuses on one nature-based tourism destination to begin to answer some critical questions about using interpretation as a management tool in Iceland
This section first provides a profile of the visitors who were observed and interviewed, and establishes how satisfied visitors and guides were with the information available in Ásbyrgi at the time of the study
Summary
The tourism industry in Iceland is of significant economic importance to the country, and the country’s natural environment is a strong drawcard for tourists [1,2,3]. For the first time ever, in 2017 tourism in Iceland was responsible for higher foreign exchange earnings (42%) than exports of marine products (16%) [4]. The annual number of international visitors steadily increased from 1.8 million in 2016 to 2.2 million in 2017 and 2.4 million in. In 2020, the total number of visitor arrivals in Iceland was just under half a million, a 75.8%. Decrease from 2019, when numbers were around 2 million. While international visitation decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic travel increased [5,6]
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