Tourism, fishing and aluminum smelting form three central pillars of Iceland’s economy, linking a small domestic market to customers and visitors overseas. The United States International Trade Administration’s market overview shows how those connections appeared in Iceland’s 2024 export figures.
Tourism accounted for 37 percent of the total value of exports of goods and services that year. Marine products contributed 21 percent, while manufactured products, mostly associated with aluminum processing, accounted for 18 percent. The figures illustrate how prominently visitors, fisheries and industrial production feature in the country’s overseas earnings.
The overview records 2.2 million tourists in 2024, compared with 486,000 in 2020. Americans represented 27 percent of visitors in 2024, making them the largest nationality among tourists that year.
Aluminum also features in the country’s commercial relationship with the United States. The overview identifies Alcoa and Century Aluminum as operators of Icelandic smelters and describes aluminum as a longstanding focus of American investment.
These dated figures offer a useful portrait of Iceland’s business connections: an island between North America and Europe whose export economy reaches well beyond its domestic market.
