It´s almost a year ago when I started getting involved in tourism in Iceland, being particularly interested in regions ‚off the beaten track‘, which would often be ‚forgotten‘ in contrast to overpromoted highlights or sort of ‚must sees‘ in Iceland.

July 2010, I published an article on the LOCAL TRAVEL MOVEMENT site about how I saw it then.

This was the time when I started thinking about various experience tourists can gain, while travelling depending on what kind of travel they choose. This was the time when I started questioning a pattern of travelling around Iceland in 7 days and also different ways of mass tourism.

Having got to know that there are many people out there, all over the world, ready to travel mindfully and give themselves enough time to explore local culture and nature in a respectful manner, I felt empowered even more and simply decided to do a lot in that direction in my Icelandic reality.

I had many questions at the beginning and after a year I have found some answers and have raised some new questions. And I would like to share some of it with you here.

My original article says:
Our area of interest, the longest fjord of Iceland – Eyjafjordur, in the north, has a great potential to become an ideal tourist destination for those who are ready to explore local culture, want to spend money locally and travel in the manner that is sensitive to environment.

One of my questions at the beginning was: How come that Eyjafjordur isn´t promoted as a whole even-though it represents a great destination for Local Travel?

How come that despite such a touristic magnet in Eyjafjordur as an island Grimsey (by getting there you cross the Arctic Circle) definitely is, most of the tourists going there don´t end up taking their time and explore the whole fjord with all its beauty? – and here we´re talking roughly about 5000 tourists, that this area is losing.

How come that bus public transport is not harmonized with a ferry schedule that goes to a beautiful small island Hrisey – one and only island in the fjord without any cars, unique for tourists to experience?

And I could go on and on, but I will stop at this point and share some answers and some insights into it.

Tourism in Iceland is a young industry and this means that the way it is coordinated is very different from the countries where tourism has already been established as an industry. Taking the above mentioned example of Eyjafjordur, there is not one institution, as such, responsible for promoting the fjord as a whole. There are 7 municipalities which are present in the fjord, but each and every of them finds it more important to focus on their municipality rather than the fjord as a whole and all 7 municipalities in it – as it is now.

So I decided to contribute to change and development. I´ve set up GO LOCAL ICELAND initiative (www.golocaliceland.com) based on solid cooperation with those local tourism providers who are interested in improving ethical standards of tourism.
By uniting them under one common platform we will be able to connect them directly to mindful travellers all over the world.

In my last article I said:
‚bear in mind, that many rural destinations in Iceland, that don´t get as much attention by mainstream tourists as the usual highlights, are dream destinations for mindful travellers. It‘s important that you find your way to them and we‘ll do our best to help on this way.‘

Well, now I can only confirm and point out that basically, you can reach out to any hidden fjord in any part of Iceland close or further away to some settlements and you will be surprised by your discoveries. That´s why I don´t want to name any in particular but will gladly advise you once you write to me and let me hear your travelling preferences.

After a year of work in tourism here, in May of 2011, I´m glad to share that I ended up carrying out 28 interviews with local tourism providers in Eyjafjordur. This was a very important first step for me to understand‚ how local tourism providers see themselves and others and what their future visions are. Indeed, they would vary quite a lot, however, the unifying point would be a wish to be advertised under one common image that has actually been lacking.

The interviews based on appreciative inquiry were and are great material, and were even used for further research carried by a tourism department at one of the University Colleges here in Iceland.

Last but not least, we keep on helping and supporting local tourism providers in their efforts and one of the examples is here: www.icelandhikingtours.com.
We helped an excellent local guide who have been organizing hiking tours for Icelanders, develop a hiking tour for foreigners and are helping him to get it to international markets.

We also keep on blogging about current offer in tourism in Eyjafjordur and Troll Peninsula, regardless of municipal borders on www.icelandtraveltips.com.

You can follow us here:
http://blog.golocaliceland.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/golocaliceland

I look forward to receiving comments and thoughts regarding the text above at lenka.uhrova@gmail.com, or via the comments!