As of early March, landowners at Geysir started charging visitors for seeing this natural spectacle. This charge started a debate over whether or not landowners were allowed to charge visitors as a part of the area is owned by the Icelandic State and the State, currently, believes anyone should be able to visit – without charge. For that reason, current parliamentarian and former Minister of the Interior, Ögmundur Jónasson, went to Geysir on Sunday along with nearly 100 people, and entered the area free of charge.
As reported by visir.is, 12 staff members at Geysir were charging visitors (600ISK/person) yesterday morning. Those staff had left by the time Ögmundur and his posse got there at around 1.30pm.
Ögmundur’s reasoning for there being no guards, was that they knew that it was the right of the people to enter the area free of charge. Spokesperson for the landowners, however, says that the reason nobody was working Sunday afternoon, was because of a marketing event across the Southcoast of Iceland called, Mysteries of the South Coast.
Ögmundur has announced on his blog that if landowners at Geysir will continue to charge an entry-fee, he will be back there on Saturday, April 5th, and he expects not to be alone, much like this past Sunday.
As of early March, landowners at Geysir started charging visitors for seeing this natural spectacle. This charge started a debate over whether or not landowners were allowed to charge visitors as a part of the area is owned by the Icelandic State and the State, currently, believes anyone should be able to visit – without charge. For that reason, current parliamentarian and former Minister of the Interior, Ögmundur Jónasson, went to Geysir on Sunday along with nearly 100 people, and entered the area free of charge.
As reported by visir.is, 12 staff members at Geysir were charging visitors (600ISK/person) yesterday morning. Those staff had left by the time Ögmundur and his posse got there at around 1.30pm.
Ögmundur’s reasoning for there being no guards, was that they knew that it was the right of the people to enter the area free of charge. Spokesperson for the landowners, however, says that the reason nobody was working Sunday afternoon, was because of a marketing event across the Southcoast of Iceland called, Mysteries of the South Coast.
Ögmundur has announced on his blog that if landowners at Geysir will continue to charge an entry-fee, he will be back there on Saturday, April 5th, and he expects not to be alone, much like this past Sunday.
