Iceland leads the way on responsible tourism with unique tourist pledge

Iceland has announced a new initiative to positively affect visitor behavior and promote a happy and meaningful travel experience by launching a first-of-a-kind pledge for visitors. 

‘The Icelandic Pledge’, an online agreement launched today, invites travelers to sign up to be a responsible tourist when visiting the country this Summer. The eight-point pledge encourages tourists to experience Iceland the way that Icelanders do by agreeing to a set of guidelines. These include directives such as ‘when exploring new places leave them as they are’, take photos ‘without dying for them’, to ‘never venture’ off- road, a direct call response to the total ban on off-road driving in Iceland, to adhere to allocated campsites when ‘sleeping under the stars’, to when nature calls, ‘not answer the call on nature’ and to be ‘prepared for all weathers, all possibilities and all adventures’.

Tourism Minister Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir announced The Icelandic Pledge at a special launch event in Borgarnes, in West Iceland. She said “The type of people who come to Iceland want to be responsible tourists, it’s just that they aren’t always aware of what that entails. So as part of our welcome we wanted to create a pledge which we’ll encourage all visitors to take, creating an army of people who know how to stay safe and also how to look after our delicate nature.” 

Visitors can take The Icelandic Pledge at www.inspiredbyiceland.com where they will receive a special shareable digital badge to demonstrate their support on social media. People can also show their support by using the hashtag #IcelandicPledge.

The Icelandic Pledge follows on from Iceland Academy, a fun interactive online education tool launched by Inspired By Iceland in 2016 that encourages informed behavior from visitors through inspirational, playful yet informative video classes.