Norway’s remote but beautiful Lofoten islands risk being overrun by tourists drawn by the growing number of Hollywood blockbusters being shot there for the spectacular Arctic scenery, local officials have said.

“It’s challenging,” Hans Fredrik Sørdal, the mayor of Flakstad municipality, told public broadcaster NRK. “In terms of tourism, we’ve become completely unbalanced this year.”

Disney’s Frozen, released in 2013 with the backing of the Norwegian tourist board, bolstered foreign visits to the country by up to 20%, with the Lofoten archipelago alone welcoming more than 1 million summer visitors last year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fishing village Nusfjord, Lofoten islands. Photograph: Alamy

Matt Damon is currently shooting part of the science fiction comedy Downsizing, scheduled for release in 2017, on the islands, which while well inside the Arctic Circle are warmed by the gulf stream and popular for their relatively mild summers, dramatic peaks, sheer cliffs and spectacular fjords.

Some locals feel enough is enough. “Millions of people will see this movie,” said Gunnar Skjeseth, owner of the Lofoten Explorer, a luxury cruise ship hired by the production. “It may be too much of a good thing if even more tourists come here because of it.”

Skjeseth told NRK the tourist industry had “more than enough to do already”. Sørdal said it was a positive that the film would put the islands even more firmly on the map – but warned that their infrastructure was already under immense strain.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Haukland beach, Vestvågøy island. Photograph: Sabine Lubenow/Getty Images/LOOK

The islands’ 24,500 permanent residents have already complained of acute traffic problems, a severe shortage of waste disposal facilities and a lack of public toilets, with a small wood near one particularly popular mountain climb now known locally as the “forest of shit”.

Narrow, single-track roads and bridges were unable to cope with the huge influx of hire cars and campervans, Sørdal said, while mountain paths and trails leading to some of the islands’ more sought-after beaches were suffering from heavy erosion.

With tourist numbers forecast to more than double over the next few years, the mayor said drastic measures would need to be taken before next season, adding: “I fear a dramatic accident, the accident we do not want to have here. Nature is vulnerable, and requires that we be much better prepared.”