More Asian travelers are visiting Iceland. Here’s what hotels should know.
- Gudrun Ragnarsdottir
- 14 hours ago
- 3 min read
It's Chinese New Year and you've probably noticed more Asian guests around: walking around town, in restaurants, and on the road.
But presence doesn’t automatically translate into bookings, especially if your hotel isn’t visible on the platforms these travelers use.
We looked into recent data to better understand how Asian travelers discover and book hotels today, and what that means for your property.
Asia isn't coming. It's already here
If you've been waiting for Asian travel to "recover" to pre-pandemic levels, it already has.
According to SiteMinder's 2025 Hotel Bookings Report, China alone now generates 40 million more outbound trips than the second-largest source market (the USA). And Iceland is feeling it: data from the Icelandic Tourist Board shows Asian and Oceanic arrivals to Keflavík hit 24,259 in January, up nearly 20% year-over-year.
But here's what's changed: these aren't the group tourists of 2019.
Trip.com's latest industry data for the Nordics paints a clear picture: over half of Chinese travelers are now independent. They're in their 30s and 40s, booking on mobile (80% of them), and heavily influenced by social media. They stay short, Iceland's average is just 1.4 nights, but that's by design. They're explorers, hopping between destinations, often deciding their next stop during the trip itself.
The shrinking booking window
According to Trip.com, the average Chinese traveler now books just 16 days out. That's shorter than Europeans, and it's getting shorter. Three-quarters of travelers have concrete plans within two months but haven't actually booked yet.
What this means: last-minute availability and flexible cancellation aren't just nice-to-haves anymore. For this segment, they're often the deciding factor.
Photos are doing the heavy lifting
When Trip.com breaks down what drives bookings, they list three things: photos, reviews, and value.
Asian travelers are specifically looking for: signature photo spots, natural lighting in rooms, breakfast imagery, and "lifestyle details" such as welcome cards, tea setups, the small touches that photograph well. If your best content is buried in a Dropbox folder somewhere, it’s not helping you win bookings.
Trip.com is becoming hard to ignore
Trip.com's data shows Iceland saw +61.7% growth on their platform last year. This means visibility on Trip.com is no longer optional for hotels that want to capture this growing segment. SiteMinder also reports the platform is expanding beyond Asia and it's now appearing as a newcomer in Germany, Spain, and the US.
Your presence and content quality on this OTA increasingly matter for reaching Asian travelers wherever they're booking from.
What you can do this week
Take 15 minutes to check your Trip.com listing (or set one up if you haven't). Look at it on mobile, that's how 80% of your potential Chinese guests will see it. Is your hero image compelling on a small screen? Are your room photos showing natural light and windows? Is breakfast visible?
Small tweaks here can make a real difference when you're competing for attention from travelers who make decisions quickly and visually.
The calendar ahead
Chinese New Year runs February 15-23 (nine days this year). After that, mark Labor Day (May 1-5) and Golden Week (October 1-7). These are your windows for this market.
How Keeps can help
For many hotels, the challenge isn't having great content: it's keeping it consistent, updated, and visible across the platforms where guests are actually booking.
This is exactly the problem Keeps was built to solve.
But regardless of how you manage it, making sure your content reflects your property clearly and consistently is becoming increasingly important as traveler behavior shifts.
Comments