In May 2017, overnight stays in hotels were 303,000, which is an increase of 7% compared with May 2016. Nights spent by foreign tourists accounted for 87% of the total number of overnight stays in May, and increased by 6% compared with May 2016. At the same time, the overnight stays of Icelanders increased by 15%.
In the Capital region, the number of overnight stays was 176,400, which is a 1% increase compared with May 2016. Around 58% of all overnight stays were in the Capital region. Overnight stays in the Southwest region were 20,400, which is an increase of 65% from the previous year. There was an increase of 26% in the Northwest and Northeast region, with overnight stays of 28,800. Overnight stays in the West and Westfjords region were 15,600, which is a 1% decrease compared with May 2016. Overseas residents with the most overnight stays in Iceland in May were from the USA (85,300), Germany (34,300) and UK (28,600), while overnight stays of Icelanders in May were 38,800.
Over the last twelve months, from June 2016 to May 2017, overnight stays in hotels were 4,142,000, which is an increase of approximately 30% compared with the previous year.
62.6% occupancy rate for bedrooms in May 2017
Occupancy rate for bedrooms in hotels was 62.6% in May 2017, which is a decrease of 2.4 points from May 2016, when it was 65.0%. Over the same period, the number of hotel bedrooms has increased from 8269 to 9128 (10%). The occupancy rate for bedrooms was highest in the capital region, or 70.6%.
| Overnight stays in hotels | ||||||
| May | June– May | |||||
| 2016 | 2017 | % | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | % | |
| Total | 282,709 | 302,987 | 7 | 3,192,149 | 4,142,196 | 30 |
| Capital region | 174,844 | 176,405 | 1 | 2,075,737 | 2,575,154 | 24 |
| Southwest | 12,353 | 20,412 | 65 | 156,613 | 247,895 | 58 |
| West and Westfjords | 15,723 | 15,622 | -1 | 134,597 | 182,946 | 36 |
| Northwest and Northeast | 22,923 | 28,795 | 26 | 216,255 | 293,897 | 36 |
| East | 8,931 | 9,509 | 6 | 85,399 | 109,927 | 29 |
| South | 47,935 | 52,244 | 9 | 523,548 | 732,377 | 40 |
| Icelanders | 33,646 | 38,784 | 15 | 351,482 | 433,207 | 23 |
| Foreign visitors | 249,063 | 264,203 | 6 | 2,840,667 | 3,708,989 | 31 |
Further updates of tables for previous years to adjust for the transfer of Höfn municipality from the East region to the South are still being worked on.The above data only show overnight stays in hotels that are operating for the whole year. Guesthouses and summer hotels are not included in this category. Numbers for 2017 are preliminary.