The number of overnight stays in June decreased by 72% compared with the same month last year. There was a 79% decrease in hotels, 75% decrease in guesthouses, and 63% decrease in other types of accommodation (youth hostels, cottages, campsites etc.). Overnight stays of foreign tourists at home accommodation through peer-to-peer websites were not estimated for June 2020.
Overnight stays in all accommodation in June 2020 were 263,400 compared with 942,700 in June last year. Icelanders accounted for 86% or 227,000 overnight stays, whereas foreign visitors accounted for 14% or 36,400. Overnight stays in hotels and guesthouses were 127,700, thereof 89,900 in hotels. Overnight stays in other types of accommodation were 135,700.
Due to an abrupt decrease in the number of departures from Keflavík Airport, it was not possible to collect data during June 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 32 hotels remained closed during June. Hence, the number of hotel bedrooms decreased by 24% in June 2020 compared with June 2019.
Occupancy rate for bedrooms in hotels was 20.5% in June 2020 which is a decrease of 51.4 percentage points from June 2019.
| Supply and occupancy rates of hotel bedrooms in June | ||||||
| Number of Hotel bedrooms in June | Room occupancy rate in June | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2019 | 2020 | pp | |
| Total | 11,022 | 8,373 | -24.0% | 71.9% | 20.5% | -51.4 |
| Capital region | 5,215 | 3,173 | -39.2% | 77.6% | 11.4% | -66.2 |
| Southwest | 868 | 773 | -10.9% | 80.0% | 13.7% | -66.3 |
| West and Westfjords | 912 | 866 | -5.0% | 57.2% | 33.6% | -23.6 |
| North | 1,214 | 1,121 | -7.7% | 63.5% | 31.9% | -31.6 |
| East | 441 | 417 | -5.4% | 66.4% | 32.0% | -34.4 |
| South | 2,372 | 2,023 | -14.7% | 67.3% | 23.0% | -44.4 |
Overnight stays in hotels in June 2020 were 89,900, which is a 79% decrease from June last year. Nights spent by foreign tourists in hotels were 15,100 which accounted for 16.8% of overnight stays in June. Overnight stays of Icelanders in June were 74,800 or 83.2%.
| Overnight stays in hotels | ||||||
| June | July-June | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | % | |
| Total | 420,320 | 89,856 | -79 | 4,442,859 | 3,457,664 | -22 |
| Capital region | 210,786 | 17,917 | -91 | 2,514,768 | 1,901,385 | -24 |
| Southwest | 37,826 | 4,628 | -88 | 344,928 | 298,070 | -14 |
| West and Westfjords | 27,994 | 15,977 | -43 | 249,524 | 203,852 | -18 |
| Northwest and Northeast | 41,270 | 19,066 | -54 | 332,421 | 259,684 | -22 |
| East | 15,751 | 7,198 | -54 | 109,011 | 93,011 | -15 |
| South | 86,693 | 25,070 | -71 | 892,207 | 701,662 | -21 |
| Citizenship | ||||||
| Icelanders | 38,164 | 74,801 | 96 | 430,633 | 434,423 | 1 |
| Foreign visitors | 382,156 | 15,055 | -96 | 4,012,226 | 3,023,241 | -25 |
The total number of overnight stays in hotels for the 12 months between July 2019 and June 2020 was 3,458,000 which is a 22% decrease from the preceding 12 month period.
Methods
All numbers for 2020 are preliminary, except for hotel data which is preliminary for June 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.