diff --git a/providers/gpx/qgsgpxprovider.cpp b/providers/gpx/qgsgpxprovider.cpp
index 793dd185a9b..bdf5eba8a1c 100644
--- a/providers/gpx/qgsgpxprovider.cpp
+++ b/providers/gpx/qgsgpxprovider.cpp
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ QgsGPXProvider::QgsGPXProvider(QString uri) : mDataSourceUri(uri),
   // assume that it won't work
   mValid = false;
   
+  // we always use UTF-8
+  mEncoding = QTextCodec::codecForName("utf8");
+  
   // get the filename and the type parameter from the URI
   int fileNameEnd = uri.find('?');
   if (fileNameEnd == -1 || uri.mid(fileNameEnd + 1, 5) != "type=") {