Seven Tourists Per Inhabitant Is Testing Icelanders' Tolerance
- Arrivals are projected to reach a record 2.3 million this year
- New government debates now systemically-important industry
Tourists visit the waterfall at Skogar, southern Iceland.
Photographer: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP via Getty Images
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If two is company and three is a crowd, then seven must be a horde.
Iceland has become such a popular tourist destination that foreign visitors are estimated to outnumber the local population by seven to one this year. The government is now considering whether the scarcely populated island in the North Atlantic can -- and should -- accommodate even more.