A visit to the real-life “Land of Ice and Fire” becomes more expensive

It’s been ten years since Game of Thrones debuted on HBO. The fantasy epic’s visual backdrop was just spectacular. Fans have often wanted to visit George R. R. Martin‘s world of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, and there’s a real-life place on earth that comes close to that. Iceland, the ‘Land of Ice and Fire’, is one of the top tourist attractions in the world. However, a trip to the fairytale destination has just become more expensive.

 Iceland plagued by over-tourism

Iceland, which refers to itself as the “land of fire and ice,” depends heavily on tourism. Visitors are drawn there to observe the lava flows, hot springs, geysers, and waterfalls. As previously stated by the nation’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland is resorting to taxation to lessen the effect that tourism’s exponential expansion has on its pristine wilderness.

Iceland to increase taxes on tourism

In an interview with Shery Ahn on Bloomberg Television, Jakobsdottir said, “Tourism has really grown exponentially in Iceland in the last decade and that obviously is not just creating effects on the climate. Also, most of our guests visit our unspoiled nature and obviously that creates a pressure.” However, the minister said the levies won’t be high “to begin with”.

Were any locations from Iceland used to film Game of Thrones?

Iceland served as the primary shooting site for the sequences that took place north of the wall starting in season 2 of the show, and the Icelandic landscape can be seen in every season of Game of Thrones following season 1. Season 1 did have a lot of sequences that take place north of the wall, but these weren’t shot in Iceland; instead, artificial snow was employed in a quarry in Northern Ireland. Other Seven Kingdoms locales, in addition to those north of the wall, were also filmed in Iceland.

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