The number of overnight stays in April decreased by 96% compared with the same month last year. There was a 97% decrease in hotels, 93% decrease in guesthouses, and 93% decrease in other types of accommodation (youth hostels, cottages etc.).
Overnight stays in all accommodation in April 2020 were 20,800 compared with 519,000 in April last year. Icelanders accounted for 68%, or 14,200 overnight stays, whereas foreign visitors accounted for 32% or 6,600. Overnight stays in hotels and guesthouses were 13,500, thereof 9,200 in hotels. Overnight stays in other types of accommodation were 7,300.
Due to an abrupt decrease in the number of departures from Keflavík Airport, it was not possible to collect data during April for the Border Study conducted by the Icelandic Tourist Board and Statistics Iceland. Therefore, it was not possible to estimate the number of unregistered overnight stays of foreign tourists, i.e. accommodation brokered through peer-to-peer websites (such as Airbnb), in cars outside of campsites, and unpaid indoor accommodation (friends/relatives, couchsurfing etc.). Estimation of unregistered overnight stays of foreign tourists will recommence once the conditions for the Border Study will improve.
In late March, many hotels were closed temporarily and 75 hotels were closed during April. Hence, the number of hotel bedrooms decreased by 44.6% compared with April 2019.
Occupancy rate for bedrooms in hotels was 3.5% in April 2020 which is a decrease of 45.7 percentage points from April 2019.
| Supply and occupancy rates of hotel bedrooms in April | ||||||
| Number of Hotel bedrooms in April | Room occupancy rate in April | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2019 | 2020 | pp | |
| Total | 10,432 | 5,778 | -44.6% | 49.2% | 3.5% | -45.7 |
| Capital region | 5,082 | 2,435 | -52.1% | 56.5% | 3.0% | -53.5 |
| Southwest | 821 | 546 | -33.5% | 60.8% | 8.5% | -52.3 |
| West and Westfjords | 757 | 552 | -27.1% | 33.2% | 3.4% | -29.8 |
| North | 1,154 | 689 | -40.3% | 36.0% | 2.5% | -33.5 |
| East | 441 | 212 | -51.9% | 28.0% | 1.9% | -26.1 |
| South | 2,177 | 1,344 | -38.3% | 44.6% | 3.1% | -41.5 |
Overnight stays in hotels in April 2020 were 9,200, which is a 97% decrease from April last year. Nights spent by foreign tourists in hotels were 3,000 which accounted for 33% of overnight stays in April. Overnight stays of Icelanders in April were 6,200 or 67%.
| Overnight stays in hotels | ||||||
| April | May-April | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | % | |
| Total | 272,590 | 9,198 | -97 | 4,444,386 | 4,064,970 | -9 |
| Capital region | 149,894 | 3,367 | -98 | 2,521,978 | 2,260,224 | -10 |
| Southwest | 27,421 | 1,978 | -93 | 335,532 | 354,489 | 6 |
| West and Westfjords | 13,650 | 954 | -93 | 254,488 | 227,168 | -11 |
| Northwest and Northeast | 20,916 | 827 | -96 | 326,570 | 301,161 | -8 |
| East | 6,443 | 177 | -97 | 106,092 | 110,303 | 4 |
| South | 54,266 | 1,895 | -97 | 899,726 | 811,625 | -10 |
| Citizenship | ||||||
| Icelanders | 37,054 | 6,193 | -83 | 440,405 | 401,419 | -9 |
| Foreign visitors | 235,536 | 3,005 | -99 | 4,003,981 | 3,663,551 | -9 |
The total number of overnight stays in hotels for the 12 months between May 2019 and April 2020 was 4,065,000 which is a 9% decrease from the preceding 12 month period.
Methods
All numbers for 2020 are preliminary, except for hotel data which is preliminary for April 2020. Due to abrupt changes in supply and occupancy rates, estimation for other types of accommodation is currently subject to a higher degree of uncertainty than usual and should therefore be taken with a special precaution until final numbers are available at the end of the year.