Overnight stays at hotels in Iceland in February were nearly 392,000 or approximately 6.1% more than in 2025 when they were roughly 369,000, according to preliminary data from Statistics Iceland. The increase was primarily due to increased number of visitors from China that mostly stayed in the South region where overnight stays increased by a total of roughly 16,000 or 17.9% year over year.
Overnight stays also increased in other regions except in the Southwest where they decreased by 7.5%. In the West and Westfjords region there was 13.3% increase and 10.6% increase in the North. In the East there was 21.3% increase but in the Capital region overnight stays increased only modestly or by 1.9% (nearly 4.000). In total, overnight stays increased by nearly 23,000 year over year.
Foreign overnight stays in hotels were approximately 352,000, or 90% of total overnight hotel stays, which was a 6.7% increase from the previous year. Domestic stays increased by only 0.7% from a year ago to total roughly 39,000. Most of all overnight stays belonged to citizens of the United Kingdom (86 thousand) and in February those decreased by 3.2% compared with the same month in 2025. Overnight stays by visitors from the USA (63 thousand) also declined by 13.2%. However, Chinese overnight stays increased significantly from 30 thousand to 52 thousand, or by 73.7%.
Overall supply of hotel bedrooms increased by 5.0% in the country in February. The greatest increase was in the East (43.7%) and South (16.5%). Minor changes were in other regions and a decline in the Southwest region (-5.0%). In the North the number of bedrooms grew by 1.4%, in the Capital region by 0.9% and by 0.6% in the West and Westfjords region. In total, there were 171 hotels operating in February 2026 with a total of 12,165 rooms which was a moderate increase from a year ago when there were 165 hotels operating in the country. A total of 58 hotels operated in the Capital region in February with a total of 5.605 rooms and 53 in the South with 3.202 rooms.
Occupancy rates of hotel rooms increased by a total of 1.2 percentage points for the whole country. Rates increased in all regions except the East where the occupancy rate decreased by 4.2 percentage points. In the North there was 2.8 percentage points increase and 2.3 percentage points increase in the West and Westfjords. And lastly, rates increased by 1.5 percentage points in both the South and Southwest regions as well as by 1.1 percentage points in the Capital region. In February the highest occupancy rates were in the Capital region (76.8%) and the South (66.4%).
All accommodations
When all accommodations are considered the total number of registered overnight stays in February were roughly 576,000. This was 6.1% higher than in February of 2025 when overnight stays were nearly 543,000. Most of overnight stays were registered in hotels and guesthouses or 435,000 (nearly 392,000 in hotels and 44,000 in guesthouses). The rest, or approximately 141,000, was attributable to other types of accommodation (camping sites, cottages, etc.).
About the data
Numbers for all accommodations other than hotels and guesthouses are preliminary for 2025 and 2026. Numbers for guesthouses are preliminary for 2026 and data on overnight stays at hotels are preliminary for February 2026.
Data registered from accommodations can include number of overnight stays that are not attributable to any nationality. In such cases, the data is distributed proportionally onto already recorded nationalities.