Mykines is drowning in tourists

Newspaper Dimmalætting on Thursday ran an article headlined “Mykines is drowing in tourists”.

In the article, tourism operators say that the ever-increasing number of tourists to the island is putting the terrain and the birdlife at risk.

Visit Faroe Islands, which oversees the Faroese tourism industry, agrees:

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“Mykines locals and tourism operators have long been calling for regulatory controls on the number of visitors to Mykines,” says Jóhan Pauli Helgason, development manager at Visit Faroe Islands.

“There are currently no institutions that have the authority to apply these limits, so we need to establish a legal authority that can grant special preservation status to our most vulnerable islands.”

 >> SEE ALSO Tourists can’t get enough of the small islands

He adds that Visit Faroe Islands was given the task of promoting the Faroes as a tourist destination.

“This task has been completed, and now it is time to shift our focus to a new phase in which we aim at organising the tourism industry.

“We do not have the authority to implement changes directly, but we are in constant talks with locals and various authorities about how best to proceed from here.”

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.