Drive tourism and rural tourist routes

Research on drive tourism and tourist routes in rural areas. The research, titled Drive Tourism off-the-beaten track, aims to capture the effect of tourist routes and road condition on tourist travel in rural areas.

The research takes core in the concepts of Drive Tourism, Travel Routes and Path Dependency. Its assumption is the role of transport systems in tourism mobilities flows and path dependency is both tourist travel and state infrastructure investments.

The research, conducted through mixed methods of survey, interviews and media content analysis, is directed at tourist travel on the first branded Icelandic tourist route, the Arctic Coast way, North Iceland. The research focus is on two of its most rural areas, Vatnsnes on the route’s northwest end and Melrakkaslétta in its northeastern part.

The project, partly funded by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration's (IRCA) research fund, can be regarded a continuity of an ITRC research conducted in 2023 on the role of IRCA in tourism development.

The research will be conducted in the summer and autumn of 2024. Project leader: Þórný Barðadóttir