Tourism in Iceland increased by almost 20% in 2012. Photo: AFP/Hannamariah/shutterstock.com
The report shows that 618,901 foreign travelers have visited Iceland so far in 2012, which represents 99,000 more tourists
than in the same period last year.
In November, a total of 36,950 overseas tourists came to Iceland, 60 percent more than in November 2011. The number of visitors in the month of November has risen from 12,400 in 2002 to nearly three times that number this year.
Some of the main tourist attractions in the country include Europe's biggest waterfalls and largest desert, as well as volcanoes, glaciers, mudpots, thermal pools and the northern lights or aurora borealis. Experts say the best time to see the lights is during the winter months.
British tourists are right at that e top of the list, representing 27.7 percent of the total, followed by Americans with 17.4% and Norwegians 8.3%.
The total number of arrivals was down after the ash-cloud chaos caused by the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010. Around that time some 100,000 European flights were canceled and millions of passengers were left stranded.