The ongoing eruption in Holuhraun, central highlands, is the cause of great uncertainty among local tour operators that specialize in highland tours, reports RÚV. The area north of Vatnajökull glacier, that includes roads to Askja, Kverkfjöll and the Gæsavatnaleið route, has been closed to traffic since early September last year.
Companies operating from Lake Mývatn, North Iceland, have found it impossible to answer customers whether or not routes to the area north of Vatnajökull will be open next summer.
“Many tour operators in the Mývatn area used to offer trips to the now restricted area. This will undoubtedly affect those companies come spring,” said Guðrún Ó. Brynleifsdóttir, managing director of Mývatnsstofa, a tourist information centre in North Iceland.
Gísli Rafn Jónsson, who owns Mývatn Tours, says he has begun to book trips to Askja caldera, but whether those trips will be done remains to be seen.
“We’ll just have to wait and see. At this moment we don’t even know how many guides we should hire.”
The ongoing eruption in Holuhraun, central highlands, is the cause of great uncertainty among local tour operators that specialize in highland tours, reports RÚV. The area north of Vatnajökull glacier, that includes roads to Askja, Kverkfjöll and the Gæsavatnaleið route, has been closed to traffic since early September last year.
Companies operating from Lake Mývatn, North Iceland, have found it impossible to answer customers whether or not routes to the area north of Vatnajökull will be open next summer.
“Many tour operators in the Mývatn area used to offer trips to the now restricted area. This will undoubtedly affect those companies come spring,” said Guðrún Ó. Brynleifsdóttir, managing director of Mývatnsstofa, a tourist information centre in North Iceland.
Gísli Rafn Jónsson, who owns Mývatn Tours, says he has begun to book trips to Askja caldera, but whether those trips will be done remains to be seen.
“We’ll just have to wait and see. At this moment we don’t even know how many guides we should hire.”
