Our heritage
Travel Connectbuilds on a solid foundation and long history. We trace our roots to 1936 in Iceland, and in the last decade, we have expanded our services and destination portfolio.
We are proud to have a growing number of talented employees across our nine brands. Together we serve our wonderful customers with a shared passion for travel and specialist knowledge of our destinations
1936
The Icelandic state establishes the State's Travel Agency (Iceland Travel’s predecessor).
The travel agency Terra Nova is founded.
1978
1988
The State's Travel Agency becomes a public limited company, majority-owned by its employees.
Icelandair, Iceland's flag carrier airline, acquires the State's Travel Agency as part of a new strategy to develop its tourism services.
1996
1999
The State's Travel Agency rebrands to Iceland Travel.
Nordic Visitor starts out under the name Reykjavík Travel Service as a tourist information centre, internet café, and bicycle rental provider.
2002
2003
Terra Nova is acquired by Primera Group
2004
Nordic Visitor launches the first booking website and engine for tour packages to Iceland. Soon it closes the tourist information centre to focus on selling tour packages online.
Nordic Visitor opens offices in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden, to sell tour packages to all of the Nordic countries.
2006
2010
Iceland Unlimited is founded.
Terra Nova launches an online booking site called Iceland Tours.
Nordic Visitor opens an office in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, to sell tour packages of Scotland.
2015
2016
The luxury travel brand Nine World is founded by Iceland Travel.
2017
Magma Hotel in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Iceland, opens its doors to customers. The hotel is founded by Ásberg Jónsson and Davíð Harðarson, the CEO and CFO of Travel Connect.
Nordic Visitor starts to operate tour packages of Ireland.
2019
2021
Travel Connect – House of Travel Brands is founded. Iceland Travel and Nine Worlds is acquired by the group to join Terra Nova, Nordic Visitor, and Iceland Tours to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Travel Connect.
Iceland Unlimited is acquired by Travel Connect. Travel Connect acquires the travel tech company Corivo.
2023
2024
Magma Hotel was acquired by by Knox hotels.
Corivo merges into Travel Connect as the digital division, providing centralized support to all brands within the Travel Connect group.
