While the local chamber of commerce recently led a contingent from Colorado Springs to Portland, our neighbors to the north went to — drum roll, please — Iceland.
Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock “led a delegation of Colorado business and community leaders to Iceland (last week) to explore the economic development opportunities that lie ahead with Icelandair’s new non-stop flight to Denver,” according to Hancock’s office.
Icelandair launched its non-stop service between Denver and Reykjavik, Iceland on May 10.
“Today is an exciting day as we open Denver’s doors to new, international relationships with great partners like Iceland,” Hancock said in a statement. “Growing our international air service will not only expand the list of destinations available to travelers, but will also play an important role in boosting the local economy and expanding our tourism reach.”
Members of the Denver City Council joined Hancock on the trip.
Could you imagine if Colorado Springs council members said they wanted to go to Iceland?
That’s awesome. Iceland is a really interesting case study for the Great Recession: The tiny country built up a substantial (for its size) international finance sector, lending money to Europeans. The recession hit, the loans went bad and Iceland let the banks go bust (actually sort of a managed bankruptcy, but they didn’t back the deposits and investors), wiping out a huge part of their economy in one swipe and devaluing the krona something fierce. They also tossed the entire government (and launched criminal investigations).
So, it was a complete debacle, but… actually in many ways Iceland is doing better than, say, Ireland (where the government stood behind the banks and was saddled with insurmountable debts) or Greece (part of the Eurozone and so unable to devalue its currency). Iceland actually has a budget surplus and is rebuilding its economy.
I’m not sure what any of that has to do with Denver – or why there’s a direct flight from Denver to Reykjavik – but I’d love to see it all first-hand.
I want to go to Iceland, oops, Can I say that?
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17614760