Bakpokar og bæjarsjóðir: Að hve miklu leyti hefur fjölgun ferðamanna haft áhrif á tekjur og kostnað íslenskra sveitarfélaga ef nokkur?

Presently, discussions are taking place in Iceland on the development and
maintenance of tourist sites and various services needed in order for tourism to
develop in line with the great increase in the number of foreign tourists. Municipalities are one of the interested parties and they are responsible for many services; sewage, maintenance of parks and streets to name a few. There are doubts that municipal income increases according to the increase in tourists, because it is most likely this will take place through municipal income tax, but much of work related to tourism is carried out by migrant workers. This research attempts to assess if municipal income costs of municipalities increase with increased number of tourists and also which types of costs. As a result, a zero point for tourism will be calculated, if costs and income develop as expected. This means that it can be estimated how many tourists need to visit a municipality annually, so that tourist related income and costs will be in equilibrium. Available data on financial affairs of municipalities from the Association of municipalities, real estate prices from the National registry and statistics on number of tourists, from diverse sources, are used to assess changes in costs and incomes, and if this will have the impacts described above. Quantitative methods are applied in the analysis. Regression analysis for panel data (fixed and random effect models) was applied along with descriptive analysis.