More than a stopover: Analysing the postcolonial image of Iceland as a gateway destination

Tourism to Iceland has and continues to benefit from its geographic position as a stopover between the North American and Eurasian continents and as an extension of the exoticised Arctic North. In that context, we argue that Iceland as a destination functions as a gateway, which should be used as a way of recognising the wider network responsible for the multiple interpretations of destination image. Accordingly, this article argues that despite the relationality of Iceland’s destination image, it has been represented as a tourism gateway by those with power to do so, producing a destination between centre and periphery as a gateway to an exoticised and commodified elsewhere. A recent advertising campaign from Iceland’s leading airline, Icelandair, was semiologically analysed as an example of travel representations that inform and shape destination image. A postcolonial lens was applied recognising that these representations are produced within a dichotomy of centre–periphery that has implications to Iceland’s present image as a travel destination.