The number of overnight stays in October decreased by 91% compared with the same month last year. There was a 91% decrease in hotels, 86% decrease in guesthouses and 88% decrease in other types of accommodation (youth hostels, cottages etc.).
Since the border study managed by Statistics Iceland and the Icelandic Tourist Board has ceased temporarily due to a decrease in departures from Keflavík Airport, it is not possible to estimate the number of foreign overnight stays at private accommodation offered through Airbnb and similar sites, which in October 2019 were 123.000.
Overnight stays in all accommodation in October 2020 were 69,000 compared with 779,000 in October last year. Icelanders accounted for 65% or 45,000 overnight stays whereas foreign visitors accounted for 35% or 24,000 stays. Overnight stays in hotels and guesthouses were 52,000, thereof 38,800 in hotels.
The number of hotel bedrooms decreased by 33% in October 2020 compared with October the year before. Occupancy rate for bedrooms in hotels was 10.9% in October 2020 which is a decrease of 58 percentage points from October 2019.
There was a dramatic decrease from October 2019 in the number of overnight stays in hotels in all regions. The greatest decrease was in the Capital region, from 225,200 to 14,000 between years, or by 94%. At the same time, hotel room supply decreased by 43% and hotel room occupancy fell by 67 percentage points down to 10.2%.
| Supply and occupancy rates of hotel bedrooms in October | ||||||
| Number of Hotel bedrooms in October | Room occupancy rate in October | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2019 | 2020 | pp | |
| Total | 11,214 | 7,493 | -33.2% | 68.5% | 10.9% | -57.6 |
| Capital region | 5,349 | 3,032 | -43.3% | 77.5% | 10.2% | -67.4 |
| Southwest | 956 | 853 | -10.8% | 70.3% | 19.3% | -51.1 |
| West and Westfjords | 905 | 629 | -30.5% | 46.5% | 11.9% | -34.5 |
| North | 1,219 | 874 | -28.3% | 51.2% | 11.8% | -39.4 |
| East | 441 | 251 | -43.1% | 48.4% | 12.9% | -35.5 |
| South | 2,344 | 1,854 | -20.9% | 68.3% | 7.2% | -61.1 |
Nights spent by foreign tourists in hotels decreased by 97% whereas nights spent by Icelanders decreased by 32%. Overnight stays of Icelanders were 27,000 or 70% whereas overnight stays of foreign tourists were 11,800 or 30%.
| Overnight stays in hotels | ||||||
| October | November-October | |||||
| 2019 | 2020 | % | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | % | |
| Total | 418,605 | 38,778 | -91 | 4,505,471 | 2,080,110 | -54 |
| Capital region | 225,172 | 14,033 | -94 | 2,499,115 | 1,127,470 | -55 |
| Southwest | 38,912 | 6,826 | -82 | 392,146 | 156,237 | -60 |
| West and Westfjords | 23,185 | 4,042 | -83 | 244,007 | 137,430 | -44 |
| Northwest and Northeast | 30,491 | 5,342 | -82 | 339,418 | 189,437 | -44 |
| East | 11,908 | 1,381 | -88 | 116,196 | 60,837 | -48 |
| South | 88,937 | 7,154 | -92 | 914,589 | 408,699 | -55 |
| Citizenship | ||||||
| Icelanders | 39,639 | 26,998 | -32 | 431,130 | 578,915 | 34 |
| Foreign visitors | 378,966 | 11,780 | -97 | 4,074,341 | 1,501,195 | -63 |
The total number of overnight stays in hotels for the 12 months between November 2019 and October 2020 was 2,080,000 which is a 54% decrease from the preceding 12-month period.
Methods
All numbers for 2020 are preliminary, except for hotel data which is preliminary for October 2020. Due to a severe decrease in departures from Keflavík Airport, data collection for the border study managed by Statistics Iceland and the Icelandic Tourist Board has been ceased temporarily and will not be continued until the situation improves. Until then, Statistics Iceland will not publish estimates of unpaid overnight stays and overnight stays in home accommodation through peer-to-peer websites. 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 at the end of the year.