The Epic Stays resources such as course modules and case-studies inspire tourism business to apply the material to understand their own business better and see even better their own strenght and weaknesses, threats and opportunities. One of the tourism businesses looking at their own business with new eyes is Hótel Blöndós (https://epicstays.eu/en_gb/locations/iceland/ ).
They are housed in an old hotel that includes the old local church and a few traditional Icelandic timber houses, clad with corricated iron, that all have a story to tell.
Picture 1 – one of the accomodation units at Hotel Blönduós, the traditional Icelandic house with the green roof.
At a mini-launch for course modules and case-studies in the Epic Stays project guests got the opportunity to walk with the Hotel Manager and see all the different buildings that Hotel Blöndós has. This way many stories came to light that some of the local guests know and some not.
The walkabout showed how often unique these buildings can be and how they tell a story both about this small town of Blöndós in Northwest Iceland and the people who lived in these houses before they moved into more modern buildings.
Picture 2 – one of the accomodation units at Hotel Blönduós, an old traditional Icelandic church that has been desecrated and a new one was built for the small town. Meanwhile this church is still in use, but for accommodation and sometimes cultural gatherings.
The buildings that Hotel Blöndós uses are thus scattered around the old town, but all within a walking distance. Thus staying at this small hotel gives the guest a feeling of being part of the old town and the opportunities of storytelling are all around. This can be used to inspire guests to stay longer and really get to know the spirit of the place. By walking around and hearing stories from people who live there or even used to live in some of the older houses, before moving away, inspired the hotel manager.
This showed how the local community, the local network and local businesses can help create more local stories, more authenticiy and improve the experience for the visitor and at the same time benefit many different type of businesses in the town and also renovate and maintain the old town, both for the tourist and for the local inhabitants. The Epic Stays thus helps keeping a valued built heritage in use and well maintained.
Written by:
Kjartan Bollason
Lektor/Assistant Professor
Ferðamáladeild/Department of Rural Tourism
Háskólinn á Hólum/Hólar University , Iceland
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