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Paper short abstract

The Blue Lagoon brands geothermal waters as soothing, pure, iconic. Yet the volcanic forces that give it life also close its gates. This paper explores lagoon branding as a dialogic genre: nature staged in mineral tranquility, and nature speaking back with fire, brimstone, and noxious gases.

Paper long abstract

The Blue Lagoon has become more than a spa: it is one of the most reproduced images of Iceland, a national icon of milky turquoise water, black lava silhouettes, and rising steam. Its marketing promises transformation, healing, and timeless wellness; photographs stage bodies suspended in mineral calm, framed by elemental horizons. With a million visitors annually and revenues in the hundreds of millions of euros, the Lagoon is as central to Iceland’s tourist economy as it is to its image.

Yet the very geology that gives the Lagoon its warmth, mineral richness, and dramatic setting also quakes, erupts, and interrupts: lava, ash, and tremors act as agents in the story. Volcanic eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula since 2021 have forced repeated closures at great cost. Fire interrupts steam, evacuation intrudes upon relaxation. The very geology that produces pleasure and profit also disrupts the story the brand seeks to tell.

Staying with the paradox of nature as both product and threat, stage and actor, the paper raises such questions as: What happens to branding narratives of otherworldliness and purity when nature speaks back and risk comes to the fore? How do tourist emotions of awe, fear, and fascination mediate the relationship between marketed nature and experienced nature? And in what ways do non-human agents—volcanoes, magma, seismicity—disrupt or co-constitute place identity and brand meaning?