According to a recent report by Vísir, the vice chairman of the Icelandic Guides’ Association considers that property owners must keep attractions clean.
“Considering how it has been, as soon as there is more tourism, there is of course more mess, but this has been unusually bad this summer,” commented vice chairman Snorri Steinn Sigurðsson. He added that the mess tourists leave behind when visiting Island has significantly increased when compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Full trash cans, rubbish all over the place, dirty public toilets and an overall disgusting view is how he describes the current situation of the main touristic destinations in the country. Popular, busy places are the dirtiest, with Gullfoss and Geysir, Suðurströndin, Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss particularly messy.
On the other hand, things are better in the Highlands thanks to the fact that most of the tourists choosing to visit the site are responsible environmentalists.
According to the vice chairman’s opinion, property owners must be in charge of keeping attractions clean for visits at all times and the government must take specific action in this regard as soon as possible.
It is not the first time Icelanders complain about tourists’ bad behaviour, as also in the past they repeatedly warned visitors about tidying up their mess, not ignore the rules and not taking local people for granted.
Despite incredibly expensive, Iceland currently experiences the positive and negative sides of over-tourism.
Source: grapevine.is
