
The increase in the number of tourists in the month of February from year to year is roughly 22.1 percent; since 2003 the number of tourists has gone up by 50 percent. In these nine years, the Icelandic Tourist Board has kept track of the number of tourists passing through Keflavík International Airport, the growth in the month of February from year to year has increased by 9.4 percent.

The largest individual group by nationality to visit Iceland in February 2012 came from the U.K., or 37.7 percent out of the total number of visitors. The second largest group came from the United States with 13.9 percent, followed by Norway with 7.0 percent, Denmark with 5.5 percent, France with 4.8 percent, Germany and Japan with 3.9 percent, and Sweden and Holland with 3.7 percent.
The increase in tourists from the U.K. from year to year is roughly 50 percent, from North America 28,4 percent, and the same can be said about countries categorized under others with roughly 20 percent. The number of Scandinavians remains the same, and slightly fewer tourists came from Central and Southern Europe.
Since January 1, the number of tourists departing from Keflavík International Airport has already reached 54,000, or a 20 percent increase. Thereof a 51 percent increase among British travelers, 29.7 percent increase among North American tourists, and approximately a quarter more from countries categorized as other.
The numbers of Scandinavians and tourists from Central and Southern Europe have decreased slightly. The number of Icelanders traveling abroad exceeded that of the same time last by 1,700.
21,242 Icelanders traveled overseas in the month of February up from 19,000 last year, or an increase of 8.3 percent. Since the beginning of the New Year, just under 45,000 Icelanders traveled overseas, or 2,250 more than in the same period in 2011, when 42,000 Icelanders traveled abroad. The numbers are up by 5.3 percent, mbl.is recently reported.
JB
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