Champion of Change: Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir and the Rise of Regenerative Tourism in West Iceland

Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir:

“By joining this project, we finally got to do what we were already doing, but with more knowledge and international context.”

Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir has been part of the NorReg project from the very beginning in 2022, when it started out as a pilot project for fostering Nordic regenerative tourism. She is the manager of the Snæfellsnes regional park, a platform for cooperation in a peninsula in the West of Iceland.

“Regenerative tourism is the future, there is no other way”.

When asking Ragnhildur how she first got aware of the regenerative tourism movement, she smilingly admits that up until she joined NorReg, she mainly associated regeneration with anti-aging cosmetics, or at most another buzzword in policy context.
Now, more than two years into the project, she plays a key role in fostering regenerative tourism, especially in the West of Iceland.

“By joining this project, we finally got to do what we were already doing, better, with more knowledge and international context.”

Ragnhildur especially emphasizes the importance of collaboration and highlights the benefits the so-called triple helix approach of NorReg where entrepreneurs, DMOs and academics collaborate jointly.

“It [regenerative tourism] takes into consideration the homework of the people. It connects people to the scientists, the companies, etc.”

Through her passionate and emphatic way, Ragnhildur has managed to get a variety of tourism stakeholders on board of the regenerative tourism movement, and sees it has her task to create even more awareness. Ragnhildur is a real agent of the regenerative tourism movement, and the NorReg project is proud of this collaboration.

See more information about the work in the Snaefellsnes Regional Park here: Or contact Ragnhildur directly: ragnhildur@snaefellsnes.is

Author: Magdalena Falter