Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in August 2024 were roughly 608,700 or approximately 2.3% more than in 2023 when they were 595,100. The greatest year-over-year increases were in the Southern region (5.6%) and the Capital region (4.9%) but lesser increase was in the North region (2.8%). Overnight stays decreased in other regions, specifically by 13.8% in the East, 7.1% in the West and Westfjords region and 5.6% in the Southern peninsula.
Foreign overnight stays in hotels were nearly 486,200 or 80% of total overnight hotel stays. This was a decrease by 2.9% compared with August 2023. Domestic stays were approximately 122,600, or 20% of the total, which was a significant increase from the previous year or 29.9% higher than in August 2023.
Supply of hotel bedrooms increased by 3.2% in August compared with the same time in 2023. The greatest increase was in the Southern region where the supply grew by roughly 8%. Overall occupancy rates increased moderately by 0.4 percentage points, primarily due to 4.9 percentage points increase in the Capital region. However, in most other regions occupancy rates decreased with rates falling most in the East region (-9.7).
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in August were roughly 1,442,000, of which 808,000 were in hotels and guesthouses and 634,000 were in other types of accommodation (camping sites, cottages, etc.). This was an increase of 0.5% compared with August 2023 when the total number of overnight stays was just below 1,435,000.
The number of foreign overnight stays (in all accommodations) increased by 2.3% in August compared with the same time last year and totalled 1,152,000 (80% of all overnight stays). On the other hand, domestic stays decreased by 5.9% year-over-year and totalled roughly 290,000 (20% of all overnight stays).
Estimated unlisted overnight stays
Data from the border study conducted at Keflavik Airport and the overnight stays database at Statistics Iceland used to estimate unlisted overnight stays in August was not available at the date of this publication. Estimated numbers will be published in October.
About the data
All numbers for 2024 are preliminary except data on overnight stays at hotels which are preliminary for August 2024.