How do places become new tourist destinations?

In recent years, news and social media has been full of stories and posts about new destinations for tourists in Iceland. The trend has been particularly noticeable during the pandemic when Icelanders have been travelling domestically more than internationally. At the same time, foreign tourists have also discovered a lot that we have not noticed ourselves. 

In 2020, huge numbers of people travelled to see Stuðlagil in East Iceland, a canyon formed by the river Jökulsá á Dal. Numerous photographs of the canyon starting appearing on social media during 2020 and continue to do so. The same thing happened with Fjaðrárgljúfur in South Iceland, which rocketed to fame after it featured in a number of photos and videos posted by the Canadian musician Justin Bieber.  

Last summer, the spotlight seemed to be on Grænihryggur near Landmannalaugar, as well as several places like the eruption site on the Reykjanes peninsula and Stórurð in East Iceland.
"One of the most popular destinations in Iceland this year must have been Stórurð in East Iceland. It was evident from Instagram and other social media platforms that practically every other person had been to see the beauty of Stórurð," wrote mbl.is on 30 December last year. 

A news article on mbl.is is of course not a scientific finding, but at UI a research project is currently taking place exploring this very topic, looking into how places become tourist destinations and the role tourists and their behaviour play in developing the destination. 

"Many people are actively involved in this process, including stakeholders, tourism companies, guides, not to mention non-human factors such as nature itself in all its glory," says Gunnar Þór Jóhannesson, professor of tourism studies. He is collaborating on this project with his fellow professor of tourism studies, Katrín Anna Lund. 

The eruption at Geldingadalir was completely unique

Gunnar Þór and Katrín Anna say that the volcanic activity at Geldingadalir was unique in many ways, in terms of its power to attract tourists. The eruption began on Reykjanes peninsula on 19 March 2021, following an intense and protracted earthquake swarm.  Lava reached the surface in a place that people could easily reach on foot and paths were quickly improved in order to provide better access and improved safety. It wasn't long before this path was by far the most popular hike in Iceland. 

Although Reykjanes peninsula is almost entirely covered with lava from previous eruptions, and the area is extremely volcanically active, this was the first eruption for almost 800 years. This was considered major news. Reykjanes and the surrounding area is the most densely populated in Iceland and it was certainly entrancing to see the glow from the volcano out of your kitchen window and tempting to head out to see the lava and craters up close. And people did so, in their thousands. 

"Never before has an eruption attracted so many visitors here in Iceland. You could say that a whole new tourist destination literally sprang up out of the ground. At the same time, we can draw more general conclusions about volcanic activity and how it relates to tourism," says Katrín Anna. 

Groundings in tourism

The researchers point out that the eruption led to a tourist destination forming in record time, which highlighted the "groundings of tourism". 

"Although the process took place in a very short period of time, by observing this example we can learn how tourist destinations are generally formed. It doesn't always happen with the same intensity, usually it's over a much longer period." Katrín Anna and Gunnar Þór address the same topic in a different context in their book Áfangastaðir – í stuttu máli (Tourist Destinations At a Glance), published by the University of Iceland Press last year. The book is targeted at anyone with an interest in tourism and explores the relationship between the tourism industry and society, focusing on the example of tourism development in Strandir in the north of the West Fjords. "In our book, we demonstrate the ways in which nature and culture are interconnected in tourism, rather than separate aspects as is often suggested," says Gunnar Þór.  

Katrín Anna adds that the book challenges conventional research methods in tourism studies and identifies new ways to approach and gain insight into the diversity of tourism and tourist destinations.

'Grounding' is a word many people will recognise in the context of electricity or people's relationship with reality and facts, but when asked to elaborate, Katrín Anna uses the plural form. 
"Groundings is a concept that describes the relationship between nature and culture during the Anthropocene. We are becoming ever more aware that, as social beings, we are both part of the systems on our planet and also agents that influence their development. This relationship may manifest itself in a variety of ways. For example, we breath in steam and gases, our mouths and noses are filled with sand and dirt in strong winds, we touch, we look and we are emotionally affected."

We cannot fully control which places become destinations

Gunnar Þór and Katrín Anna explain that their main research focus is on how people experience areas in different ways and assign them varying significance through their own activity. 
"This gives us clues as to how destinations take on a range of different meanings for different tourists, so that experiences are not uniform. It is part of a research process that we have been working on for the past few years, i.e. investigating how tourist destinations are formed. We will continue to pursue this line in our work," says Gunnar Þór.

They both agree that the eruption at Geldingadalir has provided a unique opportunity to look at an intense example of how a destination is formed. 

"We can observe a diverse range of groundings taking place and together they provide an impression of something that we could call grounded tourism," says Katrín Anna. "The point is that the destination is created through people's relationships with nature – in the connection between the power of our planet and our society. This highlights that nature is certainly not something passive simply ready and waiting for human input. Neither is nature like some wild beast, separate from human society. It is inside us and part of our daily lives, although an unruly part." 
The study will highlight the importance of considering nature on its own terms within the tourism industry. 

"This research will be useful for policy makers and those involved in developing tourist destinations," says Gunnar Þór. "Furthermore, our findings show that people are attracted to volcanic activity for an extremely diverse range of reasons and that destinations are constantly developing, even where stakeholders and the market seek to create a single specific concept to attract tourists. In the future, the tourism industry will need to take into consideration groundings that it cannot fully control."