Lifestyle as a tourism product - Development of equestrian businesses in Iceland

Abstract

This paper deals with what identifies the development of equestrian businesses in Iceland and why the lifestyle and hobby of the equestrian business operators was developed into a business or profession. The importance of tourism in this development is also analysed. The paper looks into how the horse industry and the tourism industry are intertwined in a thriving industry of equestrian tourism in Iceland, particularly in rural areas. The research was qualitative and conducted through open ended interviews with 16 operators within the horse industry in Iceland. The findings indicate that it is more likely that horse based businesses, including horse tourism businesses, are to be passed forward to new generations of operators than tourism businesses in general. Relations of the horse industry in one hand and the tourism industry on the other seem to be important. Businesses combining tourism and different kinds of horse based activities seem to be common. The combination varies from horse businesses with no direct relations to tourism to businesses entirely basing their income on tourism. It is however concluded that activities related to horse based businesses not offering tourism services do increase tourism in Iceland in an indirect way.