National park fees rise as government plans new nature charge

Service revenues at Iceland’s national parks have more than doubled in recent years, mbl.is reports, as the government plans to introduce a new nature and infrastructure fee.

Combined revenues at Þingvellir and Vatnajökull National Park rose from just under 514 million Icelandic krónur in 2022 to more than 1.055 billion in 2024, an increase of 105.5%.

The 2026 budget estimates operating revenues for Þingvellir and the Nature Conservation Agency at about 1.85 billion krónur. Under the government’s plans, that figure would rise to 2.218 billion in 2027, an increase of roughly 370 million.

The proposed nature and infrastructure fee is expected to generate an additional 5 billion krónur. A bill introducing the fee has been submitted to Alþingi, Iceland’s parliament.

“When the introduction of a nature pass was discussed at the time, the purpose was to finance infrastructure at tourist destinations because of the heavy pressure on them,” Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, an Independence Party MP and member of Alþingi’s budget committee, told Morgunblaðið.

He said the government had moved away from a general tax in favour of other forms of financing, but had significantly increased user charges in recent years.

More than 2.2 billion krónur is expected to be collected at tourist destinations next year for operations and investment by the Nature Conservation Agency and national parks, including Þingvellir, he said.

“This is not a small amount of money, and there is no shortage of funds for this development,” Guðlaugur Þór said. He questioned what the government planned to do with more than 7.2 billion krónur collected annually once the additional nature and infrastructure fee was included.

He described the planned fee as “obviously general taxation” and said it was difficult to justify investing more than 7 billion krónur every year in infrastructure at tourist destinations.

“Generally, either those who use a service pay for it, or it is funded through general taxation, not both,” he said. Guðlaugur Þór argued that users should pay for the services they use, accusing the government of doing both by raising user charges and adding the nature fee.

He called for answers on what large-scale development is planned at tourist destinations and in national parks.