Once a year, selected sites across the Faroe Islands close to ordinary visitors and reopen to an international maintenance crew. The initiative has become one of the Nordic region’s most recognisable experiments in regenerative tourism.
“Closed for Maintenance” sounds like the notice one might find on a broken lift or outside a temporarily inaccessible museum. In the Faroe Islands, however, the phrase has acquired a much more ambitious meaning.
Once a year, a selection of natural and cultural sites across the archipelago is temporarily closed to ordinary tourism. In their place comes a small international workforce: visitors prepared to spend several days building paths, repairing stonework, improving drainage, erecting signs and helping Faroese communities protect landscapes increasingly affected by human traffic. Its full name is “Closed for Maintenance, Open for Voluntourism”. Created by Visit Faroe Islands, the initiative attempts to turn tourism from a largely consumptive activity into a reciprocal one. Visitors do not simply arrive, photograph the landscape and leave. They contribute time and physical effort to its preservation. The programme is also an unusually successful piece of destination marketing. Yet dismissing it as a publicity exercise would overlook the paths, fences, viewpoints and restored heritage sites that its volunteers have actually created.
An idea born from rapid tourism growth
The Faroe Islands experienced a dramatic rise in international attention during the 2010s. Photographs of places such as Saksun, Gjógv, Mykines and Lake Sørvágsvatn spread through travel publications and social media, bringing growing numbers of hikers and sightseers to landscapes that had never been designed to receive them in such concentrations. This does not mean the whole archipelago is overwhelmed. Tourism remains unevenly distributed, with pressure concentrated at a limited number of famous viewpoints and walking routes. On those sites, however, its effects can be pronounced. Faroese vegetation grows slowly in the cool North Atlantic climate. Repeated footsteps can strip away grass, expose the thin soil and turn wet slopes into mud. Visitors may then walk around damaged sections, widening the trail and extending the erosion. Poorly defined routes can also lead people close to cliffs, through nesting areas or across working farmland. Land ownership adds another layer of complexity. Much of the Faroese outfield is privately owned and continues to serve an agricultural purpose. A beautiful hillside appearing on a traveller’s social-media feed may also be grazing land, part of a farmer’s workplace or an ecologically sensitive bird habitat. Against this background, Visit Faroe Islands proposed a strikingly simple idea: close selected attractions for a few days and invite visitors to help repair them.
From a 2019 experiment to an annual programme
The first Closed for Maintenance event took place in April 2019. Eleven popular sites were designated for work, while more than 100 international volunteers joined Faroese residents and project leaders. The tasks were practical rather than symbolic. Teams created and repaired walking paths, installed route markers, improved access and worked to protect vulnerable natural areas. Locations included Mykines, Gjógv and the celebrated Trælanípa viewpoint above Lake Sørvágsvatn. At Gásadalur, volunteers helped clear and mark the historic mountain route once used by villagers before the road tunnel transformed access to the settlement. On Nólsoy, work on wayfinding addressed a problem that local residents had discussed for years but lacked the time and resources to resolve. The response was extraordinary. When applications opened for the following edition, almost 6,000 people reportedly applied for approximately 100 international places within the first 24 hours. The planned 2020 event was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and eventually held in September 2021. Since then, Closed for Maintenance has developed into a recurring programme involving communities on islands throughout the Faroese archipelago. Figures published by Visit Faroe Islands following the 2025 edition recorded:
• 62 completed maintenance projects;
• 41 individual sites;
• 11 Faroese islands;
• 39,310 applications;
• 687 international volunteers;
• 243 Faroese volunteers;
participants representing more than 54 countries and six continents. Those numbers reveal the programme’s unusual imbalance: demand vastly exceeds the number of available places.
What the volunteers actually do
The expression voluntourism can describe everything from highly skilled conservation work to experiences offering little genuine benefit to host communities. The Faroese programme is comparatively concrete. Projects are developed with municipalities, tourism offices, landowners and local organisations, while participants work under Faroese project leaders. Most assignments concern walking infrastructure because nature and hiking are central to the islands’ tourism economy. Typical jobs include:
• restoring eroded paths;
• laying stone, gravel or other natural materials;
• clearing and improving drainage;
• constructing steps and small bridges;
• repairing traditional stone walls;
• installing route markers and signs;
• building or adjusting fences;
• creating safer viewpoints and resting areas;
• restoring wetlands or other degraded habitats;
• guiding walkers away from vulnerable vegetation.
The work can be physically demanding. Volunteers may need to carry materials, use shovels, hammers and wheelbarrows, and spend long periods outdoors on steep or uneven ground. Faroese weather does not pause for the occasion: wind, rain, mud and rapid changes in visibility are all part of the experience. No specialist qualification is normally required, although some participants may be chosen because their experience matches particular projects. Applicants must be at least 18, possess a reasonable level of fitness and understand enough English to follow instructions and communicate with their team.
The 2026 maintenance projects
The 2026 working days took place from 30 April to 2 May, with seven projects distributed across the archipelago. On Koltur, volunteers worked on a fence intended to help protect approximately 80 per cent of the island as a nature reserve, reducing grazing pressure in the protected area. The project also included restoring the old stone path to Gróthústangi and improving its drainage. The work combined habitat protection with the preservation of an important cultural landscape. On Nólsoy, the crew created a connection between two established paths north of the village. The aim was to form a circular route, improve existing sections and introduce clearer wayfinding, including work on the route towards Stong. At Sandavágur, attention focused on the path to Trøllkonufingur, the dramatic rock formation known in English as the Witch’s Finger. Heavy use had affected both the walking route and its viewing areas. Volunteers cleared the trail, improved drainage, reinforced worn surfaces and worked on fencing and small rest areas. In Vágur, on Suðuroy, participants helped develop the viewpoint at Vesturi á Eiðinum. Their tasks included preparing a short path and installing simple seating designed to fit naturally into the surrounding landscape. In an especially Faroese addition to the experience, the volunteers were accommodated aboard a traditional sailing vessel. At Hvíthamar near Funningur, the objective was to repair approximately 250 metres of badly worn trail. Drainage, ground preparation and the use of natural materials were intended to define a durable route while allowing damaged ground around the popular viewpoint to recover. In Gjógv, volunteers continued a multi-year project around the upper Nasa stairs and Við Gjónna. Heavy footfall had turned parts of the grassy route into slippery mud, encouraging walkers to spread towards the edge of the gorge. The new path was intended to improve safety while concentrating traffic on a defined surface. Finally, at Norðaravatn in Skopun, on Sandoy, work continued on the path around the lake. Improvements included drainage, attention to worn sections and lighting along part of the route, creating an amenity intended for local use throughout the year as well as for visitors. This last point is significant. Although the programme is promoted internationally, its infrastructure does not exist solely for tourists. Several projects improve paths, recreational spaces and connections used by Faroese communities themselves.
How the application process works
Registration normally opens for only 48 hours. Applying immediately offers no advantage: all applications submitted within the window are considered together. Because the number of candidates far exceeds the available places, selection combines two methods. Some volunteers are chosen randomly; others are selected because their skills or experience correspond to the planned work. Applicants can express a project preference, but assignments are decided centrally according to operational needs and the balance of each crew. Selected participants must pay for their own journey to and from the Faroe Islands. Atlantic Airways usually provides a promotional fare, but volunteers remain responsible for the cost of reaching the archipelago. During the official programme, Visit Faroe Islands provides accommodation, food and local transport. Lodging is generally simple and communal, often in or near the villages where the work takes place. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are supplied during the maintenance days, while buses and ferries connect teams with their project sites. Non-Nordic citizens require a temporary work permit, but the organisers manage the application procedure for admitted volunteers. The programme usually includes an introductory and travel day, two full working days, a final half-day of work and a closing celebration. Volunteers may extend their visit before or after the event, but must organise and pay for the additional accommodation and travel themselves. Registration for the 2026 edition is closed. Prospective participants can subscribe to the official newsletter to be notified when applications for a future edition open.
More than free labour
Volunteers clearly provide labour, but Closed for Maintenance is not simply a way of obtaining unpaid workers. Its scale is too small to replace a permanent national system of trail management, and the logistical expense of housing, feeding and transporting international participants should not be underestimated. Its greater value lies in the combination of practical intervention and public education. A visitor who has spent a day constructing drainage channels is likely to understand trail erosion more clearly than someone who has merely read a sign asking them to stay on the path. Working beside residents also reveals that the Faroese landscape is not an empty wilderness. It is inhabited, owned, farmed, remembered and managed. The cultural exchange is deliberately built into the initiative. International and Faroese volunteers work together, while local leaders share knowledge about the surrounding land and communities. Participants are encouraged to contribute something from their own culture, whether a story, song or food. This is a deeper encounter than the hurried circuit of famous viewpoints that increasingly defines tourism in many highly photographed destinations.
A clever campaign—and a real intervention
Closed for Maintenance has always operated simultaneously as conservation programme and communications campaign. Its title is irresistible to journalists, while the apparent closure of an entire destination generates headlines far beyond what a conventional sustainability announcement could achieve. In reality, the Faroe Islands do not shut their airport, roads, hotels or entire tourism economy. Selected locations close temporarily, largely for practical and safety reasons while work takes place. The phrase “the Faroe Islands are closed” is therefore a powerful simplification rather than a literal description. Visit Faroe Islands has been open about the programme’s destination-marketing dimension. The initiative has also collected numerous advertising and communications prizes, including Cannes Lions awards and a D&AD Yellow Pencil. That success invites reasonable scrutiny. Flying people into an island destination to perform several days of manual work is not automatically environmentally beneficial, particularly when their transport emissions are considered. Improved trails can protect vegetation, but they may also make attractions accessible to still more visitors. A highly publicised sustainability campaign can contribute to the popularity whose effects it is attempting to manage. Nor does one annual event resolve the broader questions surrounding Faroese tourism: private access rights, hiking fees, cruise traffic, road congestion, pressure on housing, landowner compensation and the distribution of tourism income between communities. Yet a campaign can be both promotional and materially useful. Restored paths, protected habitats and safer routes remain after the cameras have gone. The programme’s published record—dozens of projects across most of the inhabited archipelago—shows that it has moved beyond a one-off stunt.
From sustainable to regenerative tourism
Conventional sustainable tourism aims to reduce the harm caused by travel. Regenerative tourism goes further, asking whether a visit can leave a destination in a better condition than before. Closed for Maintenance does not completely achieve that ambitious ideal. No short volunteering scheme can cancel the environmental cost of international travel or solve every conflict created by tourism growth. It does, however, introduce an important principle: access to a beautiful place should involve responsibility towards it. The scheme also gives local communities a stronger role in identifying what needs to be done. The most successful projects are not invented for the entertainment of volunteers; they answer existing needs—a dangerous muddy track, a damaged viewpoint, a missing connection, an eroding landscape or a piece of cultural heritage requiring repair. For a small North Atlantic society, that distinction matters. Tourism should not reduce the Faroe Islands to a collection of backgrounds for other people’s photographs. The landscape is part of Faroese daily life and must remain viable for those who live and work within it.
A model worth copying—with care
The appeal of Closed for Maintenance lies partly in its simplicity. It replaces the usual invitation—come and see—with a more demanding proposition: come and help. Other destinations could adapt the concept, particularly where small communities face concentrated pressure on trails, coastlines or heritage sites. But copying the slogan is easier than reproducing the conditions that make the programme credible. Projects must originate in local needs, be professionally supervised and produce lasting value. Volunteers must supplement rather than displace paid workers. Communities, landowners and environmental experts must have a meaningful say in deciding where and how work takes place. The Faroese initiative is not a universal solution to overtourism, nor does it pretend that a few days with a shovel make international travel impact-free. Its real achievement is more modest—and perhaps more useful. It changes the relationship between guest and host, however briefly. For several days each year, the visitor is no longer merely a customer. The landscape is not simply a product. Tourism becomes an exchange in which enjoyment creates an obligation to care. That may be why tens of thousands have applied. The volunteers are offered something increasingly rare in modern travel: not exclusive access for its own sake, but the opportunity to earn a more meaningful connection with a place.
Practical information
Future registration dates are announced through the official Closed for Maintenance website and newsletter. Applicants should be prepared for outdoor manual work in unpredictable weather. Travel to and from the Faroe Islands is self-funded, while accommodation, meals and transport during the official working period are supplied by the organisers.
Suggested Online Sources
Visitfaroeislands.com/en/closedformaintenance/
Visitfaroeislands.com/en/closedformaintenance/about
Visitfaroeislands.com/en/closedformaintenance/projects-2026
Visitfaroeislands.com/en/closedformaintenance/projects-2025
Theguardian.com
Afar.com
