Volcanic Eruption Sparks Flow of Tourists to Iceland

I am sure you remember the pictures from last April, when clouds of dust from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland disrupted air traffic to and from Europe. While the event initially stopped tourism to Iceland, it ultimately helped tourism. Turns out Iceland experienced a 16 percent increase in visitors the first 11 months of 2010 as compared to the previous year. Volcano tours began as Icelanders offered guided trips to view the volcano and the ash-filled valleys below. By summer, visits to the volcano rivaled attendance at the country's other best-know attraction, the famed Blue Lagoon spa. Even ABC-TV's bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky, was helicoptered above the heat and smoke to view the immense power of Eyjafjallajokull during an episode of The Bachelorette.

"The eruption became our best advertising," says Einar Gustavsson, the New York-based tourism director for Iceland in North America. "There wasn't a daily newspaper that didn't cover the story. Google reported 16,000 stories in a single day."

According to Gustavsson, the volume of travel to Iceland is expected to be up 20 percent over 2010, helped in part by Delta, which will launch new service this spring. The U.S. carrier will become the third airline to serve the country, adding seats to those already provided by Icelandair and Iceland Express.

Today, the average visitor sees little evidence of the volcano, except for the small bottles of volcanic ash being sold in gift shops throughout the country.

It is fascinating how one act of nature--a volcanic eruption--can spark tourism demand while another--an earthquake--can devastate it. As with the success of any hotel, what it all comes down to is location, location, location.