Planning for the seasons with Iceland's tourism data

Most restaurants in Iceland feel the year in the same way. The summer is full, the winter is quieter, and spring and autumn are somewhere in between. How big the swing is depends on where you are. A café in Reykjavík and a restaurant in the Westfjords live with very different years.

This guide shows what the public tourism data says about the seasons, region by region. It then shows how to put those numbers next to your own sales and plan staff, stock and opening hours. The figures are as of October 2026 and cover the full year 2025 unless we say otherwise.

What the airport counts show

Ferðamálastofa and Isavia count foreign passengers who leave the country through Keflavík airport. In 2025 there were about 2,27 million, a similar number to 2023 and 2024.¹ The months were spread like this:²

August was the busiest month, with about 2,6 times as many departures as December. Summer (June to August) had 37,4 % of the year, spring and autumn (April, May, September and October) had 32,4 %, and winter had 30,2 %. Ferðamálastofa notes that this spread has been fairly stable from year to year.¹ From January to August 2026, departures were about 1 % lower than in the same months of 2025.²

Different guests come at different times

The total hides two very different patterns. Guests from the United States were about three in ten of all departures in 2025.¹ They come mostly in summer: about 102.000 left in July and about 27.000 in December.² Guests from the United Kingdom, about 229.000 in 2025, come mostly in the cooler months.^{1 2} February was their biggest month, with about 39.000, and June their smallest, with about 10.000.²

This matters for your menu and your staff. A winter weekend in Reykjavík with many British guests on a short break looks different from a July day with families on a two-week road trip. Ferðamálastofa’s survey found that British visitors stayed 5,0 nights on average and German visitors 9,8 nights.¹

Each region has its own year

Airport counts tell you how many people are in the country. Overnight stays tell you where they sleep. Hagstofa counts overnight stays in registered accommodation by region and month, for Icelanders and foreigners together. In 2025 the figures looked like this:³

In the capital area, the busiest month had less than twice the stays of the quietest. In the East and the Westfjords, two thirds of the year’s stays fell in three summer months. A restaurant there can do a large part of its year’s business in about ten weeks.

The tourist survey points the same way. In 2025, about 86 % of foreign visitors went to the capital area and 79 % to the South. About 34 % went to the North, 31 % to the East and 15 % to the Westfjords.¹ Hotel room occupancy for the whole country was 67,3 % over the year, and it was below 50 % in January and December.¹

Restaurant sales swing less than tourist numbers

Locals eat out all year, and that evens out the curve. Hagstofa publishes VAT-registered turnover for food and beverage service (ÍSAT 56) for every two months. In 2025, without VAT, it was:⁴

July and August were about 1,6 times January and February. In the same months, foreign departures were about 2,3 times higher.² November and December were stronger than March and April, even though fewer tourists left the country in those months.² The Christmas season for local guests is the likely reason.

These are national totals for the whole industry. Your own place may swing far more or far less, so your own sales report is the most useful number you have.

Put your own sales next to the national data

You can do this in one afternoon.

1. Export last year’s sales by week. Use net sales without VAT, and the number of receipts if you can get it. Mark weeks when you were closed or had an unusual event.
2. Put the national months next to yours. Use the departure counts above and the overnight stays for your region. Look at where your curve goes up earlier or later than the national one.
3. Find your three levels. Most places have a high, a middle and a low level. Write down which weeks belong to each and what a typical day looks like at each level: sales, covers and the busiest hour.
4. Add local dates. Add school holidays, festivals in your town, cruise ship days if you are near a port, and large events. These are not in the national data.
5. Check it against this year. Look at Ferðamálastofa’s monthly count when it comes out and compare it with the same month last year. A month that runs a few percent below or above last year is a signal to adjust the next roster.

In Resto, the back office shows sales by day and by hour for any period, so you can export the weeks you need.

What you can adjust

Once you know your three levels, you can plan each one ahead of time.

• Staff. Plan the roster for each level, not for the average. If you hire summer staff, your numbers show how many extra people you need and from which week.
• Opening hours. In the low season, you can close one or two days a week or shorten lunch. Your hourly sales show which hours carry the day.
• Menu size. A shorter winter menu means less stock on the shelf and less waste. In summer, a menu built for speed helps the kitchen keep up.
• Stock and suppliers. Order smaller amounts more often in the quiet months. Talk to your suppliers before summer about larger deliveries in July and August.
• Cash for the winter. A restaurant with a strong summer and a quiet winter earns most of its money in a few months. Set aside part of the summer surplus to pay the winter’s fixed costs.
• Local guests. Winter is when your neighbours eat out. A lunch offer, a set menu or a happy hour can bring them in on quiet days. In Resto you can set discounts that start and stop at fixed times.

About the numbers

• Departure counts cover foreign passengers who leave through Keflavík airport.²
• Overnight stays cover registered accommodation. Stays in unregistered accommodation are not counted.¹ The figures for recent years have been revised, and they may change again.¹
• The split by nationality is an estimate from a sample survey of passengers at the airport.²
• National and regional data shows the pattern for an area, not for your street or your guests. Use it to check your own numbers.