More than 1,200 people to take part in NATO exercise in Iceland

More than 1,200 people from 12 countries will participate in the NATO defence exercise Northern Viking in Iceland, Morgunbladid reports, citing David Logi Sigurdsson, head of the information department at Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The exercise will run from August 21 to September 4.

About 400 participants will stay in facilities at the security area of Keflavik Airport, while the remaining 800 or so will stay at hotels on the Reykjanes peninsula, Sigurdsson said.

Steinthor Jonsson, manager of Hotel Keflavik, said the hotel was fully booked around the dates of the exercise. The hotel had received larger groups than it could accommodate and had arranged accommodation for some of them elsewhere.

Other hotel managers told Morgunbladid that this period is normally heavily booked by tourists, regardless of the exercise. Stays linked to Northern Viking range from one night to three weeks, depending on whether participants are preparing for the exercise, taking part in it or helping to wind it down.

Jonsson said the groups were spread across several locations on the Reykjanes peninsula. He believed the participants travelling from the farthest away were from New Zealand.