On the Front Line at Home: The Challenges of Landowners Whose Property Becomes a Tourist Destination.


On the Front Line at Home: The Challenges of Landowners Whose Property Becomes a Tourist Destination.

About Event
16/10/2026 00:00 - 00:00
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This lecture examines the challenges faced by landowners when privately owned land suddenly becomes an internationally renowned tourist destination. Using the Brúará River as a case study, it explores how the rapid and largely unmanaged influx of visitors—driven by social media—quickly resulted in environmental degradation, trespassing on private property, and serious accidents, including fatalities.

The speaker, Gestur Gunnarsson, a specialist in clinical psychology and consultant at R+ Behavioral Management, presents this development from the perspective of his own family, who are involved in developing infrastructure in the area. The lecture also explores the experiences of landowners as they struggle to manage overwhelming numbers of visitors with limited means of influencing their behavior, in a setting where tourists are often guided more by digital influencers and social media than by official signage and safety information.