Iceland’s Hotels Were Already Full. Then Came the Eclipse.

Demand for travel to Iceland’s west coast is surging ahead of this month's once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse. Supply is a different story. Residents and tourists alike are expected to crowd the path of totality on the west coast, bringing together enough people to strain local infrastructure. But with limited flight capacity and hotels already running near capacity in the summer months, there’s only so much room for a tourism boom. Roughly 75,000 foreign tourists are expected in Iceland for the eclipse, with another 53,000 making a stop from cruise ships — roughly in line with last year’s levels, according to Icelandic Tourist Board safety specialist Dagbjartur Brynjarsson. But tourism leaders don’t view this as a missed opportunity. Rather, the eclipse offers Iceland a chance to help cement a new tourism policy focused on responsible, high-value tourism that takes place year-round rather than inbound travel numbers concentrated in