Justin Bieber Blamed for Closure of Iceland Canyon
Destination & Tourism Janeen Christoff March 22, 2019
The Bieber Effect is very real for tourism in Iceland.
Fjaorargljufur Canyon played a starring role in Bieber’s “I'll Show You” music video, sparking an onslaught of visitors to travel to the obscure region. Now, the canyon is closed to visitors, according to a report in Lonely Planet.
The ancient canyon has been closed off to visitors by environmental officials after the overwhelming volume of visitors posed a threat to the fragile vegetation of the area.
In the video, the singer takes in the beautiful scenery in the canyon, prompting his fandom’s desire to follow in his footsteps.
For perspective, the video has been viewed more than 440 million times on YouTube. Before the video made its debut, Fjaorargljufur Canyon received 150,000 visitors. In 2018, that number swelled to 282,000, nearly double.
“This canyon was somewhat unknown [before the Bieber video],” Daniel Freyr Jonsson told local Icelandic media. “The great increase in foot traffic began after Bieber came. There has been an increase of 50 percent to 80 percent between 2016, 2017 and 2018.”
The area will be closed until June 1, 2019, so that vegetation has a chance to recover from the overwhelming number of travelers.
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