Navigating Sustainability: Meaning and Manifestation of Sustainable Coastal Tourism in Northwest Iceland

Iceland in recent years has become an increasingly popular tourist destination. Between 2010 and 2018 the number of international tourist arrivals more than quadrupled and tourism accounted for more than 8% of the island’s GDP. While the rapid increase in tourism boosted the national economy it has brought many challenges in terms of sustainable development, including environmental degradation of the most popular destinations and pressure on the local housing market. The current tourism policy in Iceland has the objective of being at the forefront of sustainable tourism development internationally by 2030. While most will agree that this is an attractive goal it remains uncertain what it means in practice. Historically tourism development in Iceland has been driven by entrepreneurs working within a loose regulatory framework. While this may have benefitted entrepreneurial dynamics the downside is an overall lack of coherent vision of how to develop tourism of value, for both residents and visitors, in sustainable ways. This chapter critically explores tourism sustainability concerns and conceptualisations in the Northwest region of Iceland, typically perceived as a “cold” spot in tourism in the country, but in recent years there have been ongoing efforts for costal tourism development in the area. Based on qualitative approach, our case study explores how key actors in the regional government and tourism support system understand tourism sustainability. Secondly, how they perceive the links between the national tourism policy (that aims a leading in sustainability in 2030) and the work in the regional development towards coastal tourism sustainability.