Cultivating Sustainable Tourism: Thor Gunnarson’s Journey at Hótel Snaefellsnes

Jul 24

“In some parts NorReg opened my mind. It is not that we can choose that we change; we have to change.” Thor Gunnarsson, manager of Hótel Snæfellsnes

Thor Fannberg Gunnarson is the manager of Hótel Snaefellsnes (formerly Hótel Rjúkandi) in Snaefellsnes. Snaefellsnes is a beautiful peninsula only a two-hour drive away from the capital of Reykjavík in the west of Iceland.

Hótel Snaefellsnes is a countryside hotel where Thor and his family emphasize providing their guests with personal service and comfortable countryside vibes. In the adjoining coffeehouse, which is locally known as Vegamót (literal translation: crossroads), they place a strong emphasis on using local ingredients for their cakes and bread specialties, which are enjoying great popularity among both locals and visitors.

Thor refers to his participation in the NorReg project as a “wake-up call,” a reminder for him and others to increase awareness of how our actions affect both our surrounding nature and our local communities. “In some parts, NorReg opened my mind. It is not that we can choose that we change; we have to change.”

Thor has been participating in the NorReg project from the very beginning. His hotel further contributed to the NorReg citizen science project to protect local seals. See story here. In collaboration with the Snaefellsnes National Park, he instantly agreed to support this project and turned his hotel into the base of departure for this initiative. His staff was trained to provide professional information on the seals and the citizen science project. Despite the project requiring a large amount of time (that most visitors could not spontaneously find in their travel schedule), they managed to pilot-start the project and send a few guests on a tour to increase their knowledge and awareness about Icelandic seals.

Supporting projects like this aligns with Thor’s business philosophy: “My view on the tourism industry here in my area is that we have to have environmental issues more on our radar,” says Thor. Even though a lot of positive development has happened recently, there is still a lot of potential that has to be worked on. Projects like NorReg provide access to both tools and awareness for local business owners to become part of the regenerative tourism movement.

Find more information on Hótel Snaefellsnes here: https://www.hotelsnaefellsnes.com/