Iceland review - 2016, Page 48

46 ICELAND REVIEW
TRAVEL
used to ocean swimming in their home
country, the conditions at Reynisfjara
are extremely dangerous; in part because
of the deceptively strong undertow
and steep drop in the ocean floor. “In
Australia, people go surfing. Maybe you
think the ocean doesn’t look too bad
here, but it’s easy to underestimate it—
it’s very dangerous. The other day two
guys turned up here in their swimming
trunks. Where did they get their infor-
mation from?!” It doesn’t take much to
get into trouble, she points out. “First
people just get their feet wet, they’re
laughing but the water only needs to
go up to here [points to her knees] and
you can get pulled out [to sea], because
you fall down and then if a second wave
comes you’re in trouble.” She explains
that communicating the risks is chal-
lenging: the tour company she works for
wants to continue visiting Reynisfjara but
some visitors simply don’t listen. “I tell
them ‘a man died here two weeks ago.’
We keep telling people but some don’t
listen. It doesn’t look dangerous.”
According to Project Manager of
ICE-SAR’s (the Icelandic Association
for Search and Rescue) SafeTravel pro-
ject, Jónas Guðmundsson, the new sign
at Reynisfjara was only intended as a
temporary solution. A third sign, with
pictures, has since been put up but it,
too, has been criticized for not being
sufficiently clear. “The word ‘danger’ is a
general word. We need to be more spe-
cific when explaining the danger, explain
that every 15th-20th wave can be much
bigger and we should use the word ‘dead-
ly.’ People want to feel nature, they want
to walk in the sand, see the waves, expe-
rience it. A deck at Reynisfjara would not
work but we could use a park ranger, for
example.”
Sindri Gunnarsson, who was also at
Reynisfjara, accompanying a group of
tourists, has seen his fair share of close
calls, too. “I tell people not to go as far
as the wet sand. Today I saw four men
taking photos of their wives down at the
shore. I told one of them that they were
putting their wives’ lives in danger. He
responded: ‘I know,’ and just laughed!”
Sindri agrees that fencing Reynisfjara is
not the answer.
SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
The recent discussion has also centered
on responsibility: while some visitors
to Iceland clearly act recklessly, there
has been intense debate about the need
to improve the infrastructure and build
awareness of the dangers for visitors
by better dissemination of information.
Some tourists have suggested that imag-
es and videos used to promote Iceland,
showing people up close and personal
with Icelandic nature, inspire them to
get as close as possible. Icelandair, for
example, was criticized on social media
for posting a photo on Instagram from
Reynisfjara, showing people very close to
the shore, to promote Iceland as a stopo-
ver destination, just three weeks after the
drowning. Icelandair’s public relations
officer Guðjón Arngrímsson told nation-
al broadcaster RÚV at the time that it
would not be realistic to stop showing
places where there have been accidents,
but given the circumstances, it was per-
haps not tasteful to use that particular
image and the post would be removed.
When asked by Iceland Review whether
the airline could do more onboard to
warn customers of the dangers of trav-
eling in Iceland, he responds that while
the airline acknowledges it has a role to
play in promoting safety, the majority
of its passengers travel between Europe
and North America and are not actually
tourists on their way to Iceland. “Iceland
is of course a large part of our image
... and we want it to be a good and safe
destination and we want to contribute to
that, but we can’t start doing the work
of the police—that’s not on,” he empha-
sizes. Some people have suggested that a
compulsory safety video be shown to all
passengers of airlines arriving in Iceland.
Icelandair has Iceland travel safety videos
available as an option in its passenger
entertainment system.
Director of the Icelandic Tourist Board
Ólöf Ýrr Atladóttir believes that par-
ties involved in branding Iceland have
a responsibility. Promote Iceland, the
organization overseeing public participa-
tion in tourism promotion, for example,
set up guidelines for photos used for
promotional purposes and also launched
Close call: a tourist narrowly escapes being swept out to sea by a wave on Reynisfjara, February 1, 2016.