Travellers who have yet to tick Iceland off the bucketlist may want to do it sooner rather than later, before those reasonable tour prices disappear.
On The Go Tours’ Managing Director Carl Cross recently told KarryOn that the influx of tourists to the Nordic nation is quickly outweighing available infrastructure, to the point where hotel rooms are filling fast and the millions of visitors are far outnumbering the local population of just around 200,000 people.
Cross explained that this pressure on Iceland’s resources will eventually limit operators in terms of capacity and could result in higher tour prices.
“The quota is going up for Iceland and it’s leading to overpopulation in terms of tourists,” he said.
“So infrastructure, a bit like Cuba, is under pressure and as a result prices are going up.
“We’ve done all we can to keep them where they are but as demand gets stronger and priority goes up it’s getting more expensive.”
Carl Cross, On The Go Tours Managing Director
The MD continued, saying that while the days of five-day $1,000 tours in Iceland are limited, he doesn’t believe this won’t stop holidaymakers from travelling to the Northern European destination.
“Having said that, it’s a bucket list destination. So that won’t necessarily stop people from going to see things like the Northern Lights,” he added.
Meanwhile, another hot spot for Aussie and Kiwi holidaymakers in 2017 is Egypt, which has had a 110 percent increase in bookings for 2017 compared to last year.
Cross said demand has been so strong for Egypt this year that the operator has had to add extra departures almost every week.
He surmised that renewed confidence in the Middle Eastern destination comes from the absence of negative news out of Egypt and the desire to see many of its bucket list attractions.
“The reality is, Egypt is a bucket list destination, pretty much everyone wants to go there at some point in their life,” he said.
“So as long as it stays quiet, people are able to put the past in the back of their mind and give it a go.”
Cross added that the rise in Egypt bookings has also contributed to a 40 percent growth in multiple tours across On The Go Tours’ portfolio, with many Australians and Kiwis adding countries such as Jordan to their Egyptian itinerary.