Iceland is a popular tourist destination and the number of tourists has increased rapidly in Iceland in recent years, although this increase has now slowed down. During the winter months, tourists mainly visit the south and the southwest part of Iceland, while other regions have fewer tourist during the winter months. Concentration has occurred in the southwestern corner of the country, contrary to the goal of better distribution of tourist. One way of distributing tourists is the project Arctic Coast Way. The Arctic Coast Way is an attraction for tourists who want to stay out of the main roads and do so by crossing the coastal north coast. The route is a total of 900 kilometres. In May 2019, the Arctic Coast Way was chosen as the top 10 list of European destinations that are worth a visit by Lonely Planet, one of the world's most popular travel guidebooks. The project was first introduced two years ago. The Arctic Coast Way main objective should be to attract tourists' attention to the coastline along North Iceland. Such roads are known in the global tourism industry, as a tool for directing travellers by certain roads in a particular area. The overall goal of the project is to create increased opportunities for tourism companies by creating brands with which they can connect. With this, they could become more visible both in domestic and foreign markets, as well as a tool for getting tourists to travel abroad and in the peripheral areas of so-called, and to get them to stay longer in the North. The main goal of this presentation is to explain how students at the University of Akureyri took part and contributed to this project. Many good ideas from students were put forward and were used when this route was formally introduced on June 8th 2019.

For over 70 years, there was only one university in Iceland, located in Reykjavík the capital of Iceland. Therefore, for anyone wanting to go to university the only option was to move to Reykjavík or attend a university in a foreign. That changed in the year of 1987 with the establishment of Akureyri University. Akureyri University, located in the northern region of Iceland, has been instrumental in the economic growth of the region and a key factor in building up knowledge in rural places in Iceland. In the recent years, Akureyri University has developed teaching methods to be able to offer blended learning and distance learning study programmes. Now it possible for students all over the country to seek and get education wherever they may be located. The University of Akureyri has now around 2.000 students. Majority, about two thirds, of the students are off-campus students, using the technology to access their studies, their lectures, their classes and so on. Majority of these students are located in Iceland but about 5% of them are located outside of Iceland. A qualitative research was done among several former students of Akureyri University in rural areas in Iceland. The aim was to study the impact of knowledge building and edification in the rural societies in Iceland. In this presentation the main finding of this research will be explained and the role of Akureyri University in building up knowledge in the rural parts of Iceland discussed. Technology has changed the ways of teaching and the university is now aiming to make all of the studies flexible and independent of time and space.

The importance of marketing techniques in political campaigning has increased as communicating politics has become more complex in a highly fragmented media environment. With different media logics interacting in a hybrid media system political marketing methods through social media have drawn considerable attention and even been seen to pose a threat to democratic processes. This paper looks at the extent and nature of the use of marketing techniques in the 2018 municipal elections in Iceland, by using a mixed methods approach. The findings of a candidate survey and interviews with campaign managers suggest that the methods used are by and large a technical extension of previous methods and not qualitatively different from traditional electioneering. Both social media and traditional media are important marketing vehicles, but the importance of social media clearly on the rise. However, in lager communities in the capital region there is a higher degree of professionalism than in other parts of the country and the size of municipality is important, while the type of party or age of candidates is not.

International markets can offer various opportunities for large companies however it can be difficult for small and medium sized enterprises (e. SMEs) to enter new markets. Within the European Union (EU) there has been a strong emphasis on supporting SMEs and providing a favorable environment for them to prosper. The Higher Education Institution Act No. 63/2006 and the Magna Charta Universitatum Declaration emphasize the importance of connecting universities to their close and surrounding environment, including SMEs.

Akureyri University´s Faculty of Business Administration is a member of the Nobanet network, among universities in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The aim of the network is to link together; students, lectures and businesses. As a part of Nobanet, Akureyri University developed an international e-business course along with the other partner institutions in the network. The overall goal was to provide students with necessary knowledge about basic principles of e-business and to improve practical skills to use online tools and applications. In total, the course contains 10 topics, each 1 ECTS. In this presentation, the authors will explain the origin of the course, which is the first international e-business course taught in Akureyri University. In developing the course, Moocs (e. massive open online courses) were analysed and used as role models. The learning platform Eliademy is used as a host for the course and the authors will demonstrate the platform and show examples of videos and learning material used in the course. Students in Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Denmark have already taken parts of the e-business course. The students experience was examined with questionnaire that they students filled out when finishing the course. The authors will present the results from this research. Majority of the students liked the course, as the average grade was 4,06, out of 5. Students in their first and second year ranking the course higher than students did in their third year of study. Eliademy was considered easy to use by students, grading it with 4,23 out of 5 in the research.