Atlantica - 01.12.2006, Side 59

AT L A N T I CA 57
One step towards branding Sudureyri as the
fishing village is to deliver the fishing experience
to tourists in such a way that visitors can live it,
touch it and smell it. Starting last year, Elli began
organizing trips aboard fishing boats where for
about USD 170 tourists experience a day in the
life of a fisherman: waking up at 6 am, baiting line
and following the skipper’s orders during a day
out at sea. When the boat returns, tourists take
the catch to the fish factory, witnessing first hand
how the cod or haddock is processed. Elli doesn’t
take a cut of the trip, because he wants to “help
the fisherman out,” and the day at sea attracts
tourists to Sudureyri, filling his guesthouse and
restaurant.
The adventure tourist package earned him
an award from the Icelandic Travel Industry
Association, and the plaque for innovation proud-
ly hangs on the wall of his restaurant.
FISH AHOY!
These types of creative, off-the-wall ideas are what
Halldór Halldórsson, the mayor of Ísafjördur,
envisioned three years ago when he declared the
West Fjords to be a region free of heavy industry.
Halldórsson wants to market the West Fjords as
wild, untamed wilderness, so he must strive to
develop the area economically without depending
on aluminum smelters like the one in the East
Fjords, run by the multinational aluminum giant
Alcoa.
“I’m not saying a smelter is not right for the
“Elli’s making money out of
nothing. Some call him
Elli Trump.”
ICELAND a
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