This chapter starts with an overview of early tourism, where the journey and route were of critical importance. It then discusses: the three essential tools and facilitators of route-focused tourism (tour operators, guides and guidebooks); the emergence of destination-focused tourism since the...

This chapter critically explores the notion of overtourism and its usefulness to grasp the challenges of tourism development, with a special focus on how tourism affects society and culture. It is argued that the concept of overtourism is too often based on the static and over-simplified views of...

As a young man in 1912, the author Thorbergur Thordarson leaves a ship in a small village in the Strandir region of north-west Iceland and decides to walk to Reykjavik, the capital, approximately 300 km away in the south. His pedestrian journey from Strandir and all the way to Reykjavik became the...

This book is concerned with the various dimensions of overtourism, including the social and economic impacts of excessive tourism and the management and policy measures to address it. The 10 chapters present case studies contributing to the overtourism discussion from diverse perspectives and...

This chapter focuses on Iceland, aiming to encapsulate the climate change debate within the context of coastal tourism destinations. It looks at the climate change effects on Iceland, the adaptation and responses to climate change as well as the compensations provided by climate change. Also...

This chapter explores the historic and modern expansion of glacial visitation to the Scandinavian country of Iceland. In order to understand this growing aspect of tourism, the chapter presents evidence of the entrepreneurial activity of more than 40 small, hard and soft adventure tourism operators ...

Arctic tourism plays an increasingly significant role in the local and national economies of the eight nations (Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the USA) that ring the Arctic region. This chapter outlines each nation's approach to Arctic tourism development,...

This book describes, analyses, and evaluates Scandinavian ecotourism. It includes overviews of the state of ecotourism development in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland and focuses on aspects of sustainability, among others. This book will appeal to researchers and students of ecotourism. It has...

Given Iceland's primary nature-based tourism product, this chapter seeks to understand tourists' fascination with Iceland and discusses whether the island should be understood in tourism terms as a nature, adventure or ecotourism destination. It is pointed out that Iceland could be conceptualized...