The entire population of Iceland is approximately 390,000 people. In U.S. terms, this is the same size as the city of New Orleans, living in an area nearly identical to the state of Kentucky. (Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon, also known for its crushing poverty, obesity, abnormally high lung cancer rates, contaminated drinking water, and low high school and college graduation rates.) Iceland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world at 3.8 people per square kilometer. To compare, Manhattan is 27,000 people per square kilometer.

So six people live full-time in Iceland, which makes it surprising that in 2024, 2.26 million tourists visited. Back in 2010, only 500,000 tourists made the trip. Now, tourism is roughly a tenth of Iceland’s GDP, made possible by an amalgamation of variables coming together that we’ll discuss in future posts. Iceland’s tourism has grown at an average of 11% annually for 14 years. I stress average, since tourism in 2020 was zero. But people are back, baby! Where tourists go, delicious money flows right behind them.

So it’s not all bag-fulls of Dollars and Euros, and, I guess, Krona. That’s Iceland’s currency. $1 USD equals 123 ISK, which is impossible to calculate on the fly, so everyone uses cards. This cannot be an accident. Tap-to-pay hurts a lot less than forking over paper currency in unfamiliar denominations. 18,000 ISK for a dinner for two? That’s not a real price.

Well, money and some complications. Tourists, by definition, are loud, rude, annoying, socially and culturally inept. We look strange, we dress funny, we (probably) smell odd, we drive poorly, and we use up a greater share of resources (hey, I’m on vacation!) than locals. Some tourists are demanding pains in the ass who want what they want regardless of local custom and seem to forget they’re guests in someone else’s house. Those travelers should stay on their cruise ships.

I digress.

What is it about Iceland that has captured the zeitgeist? What are all these tourists doing here, including us? Is it about stunning landscapes? Are we escaping global warming? Maybe we’ll find some answers in the land of the midnight sun.

From Delta 246 at JFK on runway 2 2 Right, after an hour delay for a mechanical issue, we are cleared for departure. We leave in darkness, which we will not experience again till our return in a week.

Goodnight.