Success and constrains factors among nature-based tourist companies in Iceland

Abstract

This paper deals with the main success and constraint factors among Icelandic nature-based tourist companies. The main tourist attraction in Iceland as in other Nordic countries is nature. Over the last decades, nature-based tourism is believed to have been a growing industry and at the same time tourism in Iceland has grown rapidly. One of the greatest challenges working with the theme of nature-based tourism is lack of definitions of the concept. The survey design was a joint work with Iceland, Sweden and Norway. The Icelandic survey was translated and localized with a help from professor from University of Iceland and not all question are exactly the same as in Norwegian survey. A total of 90 companies (37%) of a valid sample of 241 responded to a web survey. The main finding was that employees play a large part in companies’ successes. In fact they scores higher than nature itself. Employees have also a great effect on the constraints a company faces, in the form of lack of knowledge and recruitment. This study shows that only small differences were found between what Icelandic companies deal with in terms of constraint and success factors no matter the size or location.