Frozen Has Generated Too Much Tourism for Norway to Handle

Frozen broke box office records when it was released in 2013, and the effects of Disney’s animated hit are still being felt today. Namely in Norway, where tourism generated by the film’s positive reception has proven to be too much for parts of the country to keep up with, The Guardian reports.

Since Frozen’s premiere, foreign visits to the Scandinavian nation have increased by 20 percent. Norway’s Lofoten archipelago has become especially popular, hosting over 1 million visitors last summer.

For the more than 24,000 full-time residents of the islands, the sudden attention has turned out to be too much of a good thing. The public toilets and waste disposal systems of the towns there aren’t meant to handle the sheer numbers they’ve been seeing, leading to an unfortunate nickname for one polluted forest. The roadways, which include many one-lane streets and bridges, have also become congested by the influx of tourists.

The Lofoten archipelago isn’t the first place to experience a movie-related tourism boom. In many cases, like New Zealand with the Lord of the Rings franchise and Northern Ireland with Game of Thrones, tourists have been met with open arms. In Norway they’re not as welcome, and with a new Matt Damon flick filmed on the islands set for release next year, their future isn't looking any brighter.

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