• Outdoors Outdoors

Masses of rule-breaking tourists at popular Icelandic attraction cause outrage online: 'Scold them, fine them, rescue them'

"They have ruined one place near my family's farm."

"They have ruined one place near my family's farm."

Photo Credit: Tim Coughlin

Some popular tourist attractions, like geysers in Iceland, are best enjoyed from afar, especially as they can prove highly dangerous for visitors and wildlife.

One Redditor discovered that the "leave it as you found it" message can often go ignored, as they witnessed a group of tourists stomping around geyser land.

"I'm a first-time visitor/camper from Germany and really surprised about the amount of idiotic tourists not respecting the land and doing stupid stuff like in this video," wrote the OP on the r/VisitingIceland subreddit.

"I drove the ring road the last two weeks and I'm now in the golden circle and the [amount] of…um…[dis]respectful tourists is 'stunning.' As well as the sheer amount of them," they continued in the post.

World Nomads explained in a safety guide for visiting Iceland that "annually, tourists are scalded and burnt by geysers whether inadvertently stepping into a hot spring in an active area or ignoring cordoned-off areas and standing too close to the action."

As such, it advised tourists to "stick to signed and marked paths." Off the path, the ground can be thin, and the "next thing you know, you're waist-deep in scalding hot water."

There have been multiple stories of native Icelanders begging tourists to get out of dangerous areas. According to Grapevine, locals upheld that they "have nothing against tourists, they bring currency to the country and have had a positive impact on everything from the availability of cultural events to food culture."

However, it was noted that tourists need to follow instructions, listen to locals, stay on paths, and respect nature. 

The fragility of nature is even more present with the onset of a shifting climate, with rebalanced ecosystems contributing to the decline of wildlife populations. Off-trailing in natural areas compounds ecosystem degradation, which is another reason to stay within designated tourist areas.

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Redditors gave their frank opinions about the tourists.

"Scold them, fine them, rescue them. Put them on the news," one wrote.

Others expressed their disdain after tourists were responsible for degrading their land.

"They have ruined one place near my family's farm [that] I used to go swim at ever since I was little," someone said. "Due to the tourists being so disrespectful to the land in the past decade, the owners have been forced to put strict rules including no one being allowed to go in or near the water."

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