Literary tourism and hotels that amp it up have come to Iceland

While Iceland does not immediately bring to mind associations of being a literary hub in the way of London or Paris, the small Nordic nation sitting in the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe is home to extensive centuries-old literary traditions around Norse storytelling and mythology.

Two 13th-century foundational literary works known as Eddas have set the trajectory for centuries of other poetry and historic legends while, in the modern age, Iceland is associated above all with the Nordic Noir style that began in the 1990s through the works of authors such as Arnaldur Indriðason, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson.

The country also has a tradition known as Jólabókaflóð, or Christmas book flood, in which friends and family members gift each other books and then spend Christmas Eve cozied up and reading together.

A new Hilton Curio hotel in northern Iceland is all about that Norse poetry and myths

Tapping into all this literary past and present, a new hotel under the Hilton Curio brand known as Skáld Akureyri has opened to guests in the Akureyri town at the base of the Eyjafjörður Fjord in northern Iceland.

Everything from the 71 rooms and 15 serviced apartments to the Abba-labba-lá flagship New Nordic restaurant has been designed to weave in references to Norse mythology and works from 13 contemporary and historical Icelandic poets.

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The Icelandic word skáld is a reference to a poet or wordsmith who in Viking times passed around verses praising the king or recounting warrior feats. Each room and common space is decorated with rows of books while local wood and marble used throughout the space area a nod to the wild nature that inspired centuries of Icelandic storytelling.

Hilton

New hotel in Akureyri "inspired by Icelandic poetry and shaped by the surrounding landscape"

"Skáld Akureyri has been created as more than a place to stay — it is a house rooted in Akureyri, inspired by Icelandic poetry, and shaped by the surrounding landscape," Magnea Þórey Hjálmarsdóttir, the hotel's general manager, said in a statement. "We look forward to welcoming guests to a hotel where design, literature, food, and warm hospitality come together in the heart of North Iceland."

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Literary tourism, which refers to both travelers who seek out specific destinations that they

read about in a book or those who go to cities with a long literary history or abundance of writers, has been on the rise as a travel trend in multiple parts of the world.

According to one report by Future Market Insights, this branch of the global tourism market is expected to be worth $3.3 billion by 2034.

London, as well as a number of other cities in the United Kingdom, remain the primary destination for literary tourists given that it is currently above all a trend in the English-speaking world but the term is used for any kind of travel that was inspired by a literary work.

As a result, a literary destination can mean anything from Prince Edward Island in Canada for those who loved "Anne Of Green Gables" to the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi that hosted writers such as Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene.

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