In January 2023, there were 449,800 overnight stays in Iceland which exceeded January in all previous years. This is an 86% increase between years (241,200) and an 7.5% increase from 2020 (418,300).
Foreign overnight stays were 79% of overnight stays, or 356,000, which is double the previous year (176,300). Domestic overnight stays were 93,800 which is an 45% increase from the previous year. Overnight stays in hotels and guesthouses were 361,300 while 88,500 were in other types of accommodation (apartments, cottages, campsites etc.).
Statistics Iceland is now publishing the estimated number of unregistered overnight stays for 2021 and 2022. It is estimated that foreign overnight stays in home accommodation through Airbnb over this period were around 518,000 in 2021 and around 1,168,000 in 2022. Overnight stays in camper vans other than in camping areas were around 78,000 in 2021 and 75,000 in 2022 while there were 96,000 with friends and relatives in 2021 and 264,000 in 2022. Estimated figures for January 2023 are not yet available.
There were 312,000 overnight stays in hotels in January which is an 93% increase from previous year (161,600) and 7% increase from 2020 (291,100). This increase is characterised by an increase in all regions. Foreign overnight stays at hotels were 254,300, or 81% of overnight stays at hotels while the Icelandic overnights were 57,700 (19%). Foreign overnight stats doubled while the Icelandic increased by 58%.
The number of hotel bedrooms increased by 4.6% in January 2023 compared with January the year before. Occupancy rate for hotel rooms was 52.2%, which is an increase of 23.7 percentage points from January 2022.
A border study has been carried out at Keflavík Airport by the Icelandic Tourist Board and Statistics Iceland since June 2017, and Statistics Iceland published the estimated number of unregistered foreign overnight based on its results. Therein were estimates for overnight stays in homestays brokered through Airbnb, as well as overnight stays in campers and caravans outside paid camping areas and with friends and relatives. Due to the large decrease in the number of departures from Keflavík Airport following the Covid pandemic, the border study was suspended from April 2020 to May 2021, and these estimations were discontinued in the summer of 2020.
All numbers for 2022 are preliminary, except for hotel data which is preliminary for January 2022. Due to abrupt changes in supply and occupancy rates, estimation for other types of accommodation than hotels 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.