by By Joanna Plucinska and Krisztina Than
LONDON/BUDAPEST (Reuters) – As a white river of lava flowed from a volcano that erupted in Iceland last week, not everyone was happy.
Hazel Lane, 49, a London dental practice, had booked a ticket to Reykjavik as soon as she saw footage of the eruption on TV, expecting to see spectacular lava flows under molten red skies .
Lane had visited Iceland the previous month, but it was too soon. Although authorities had by then evacuated nearly 4,000 residents from the nearby town of Grindavik, weeks passed before the volcano – located about 40 km (25 miles) south-west of Reykjavík – erupted on 18 December .
“I had a crazy idea to go to Reykjavík for the day to fly over the volcanic eruption,” Lane said. She arrived with her son and his girlfriend on December 22 to find that the lava flow had already subsided.
“We are disappointed that the volcanic activity has ended but we will still have a beautiful day in Reykjavík.”
Lane probably won’t have to wait long before the next eruption. Iceland, which is about the size of the US state of Kentucky and has fewer than 400,000 residents, has more than 30 active volcanoes.
The northern European island is therefore a prime destination for volcano tourism – a niche segment that attracts thousands of thrill seekers each year to sites from Mexico and Guatemala, to Sicily, Indonesia and New Zealand.
The reduced activity of the volcano near Grindavik has raised concerns about a repeat of the travel chaos caused by ash from a major eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010.
But for local tour agencies, planning to bring tourists to the site, it was a missed opportunity. Recent eruptions – such as the 2021 Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwest Iceland – have attracted thousands of visitors.
Troll Expeditions – which offers trips to Iceland’s ice caves, glaciers, geothermal pools as well as a range of volcano tours – said tourist bookings to Iceland had fallen before the Grindavik eruption due to previous earthquakes. But the eruption itself quickly returned interest.
“People are very happy to see the volcano. Unfortunately, the eruption is currently on hold,” the company said via email, noting that it is the fourth eruption in the area in the last three years.
“The other eruptions are great for tourism, because they are what are called ‘tourist eruptions’ where you can be quite close to the crater and see the lava flow.”
The former president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grímsson, was already encouraging visitors to prepare for January.
“The prediction is that the eruption could start again in two weeks! Book your flight now so you can create the Earth!” he said in a Dec. 23 post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
MANAGING RISKS
For dedicated ‘lava chasers’, nothing beats a tough climb to the top of a volcano, the walk around craters and the smell of sulfur in the air.
Eruptions can often be predicted well in advance, leaving plenty of time for evacuation and warning.
When Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted late last year for the first time since 1984, thousands of onlookers flocked to witness its glorious lava flows. Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency had already said there were no signs that lava would threaten populated areas.
But in some other cases, tourists paid with their lives.
At the beginning of this month, Indonesia’s Marapi volcano erupted, killing 22 people: climbers lost near the summit. Marapi is one of the most active volcanoes on the island of Sumatra and has previously erupted in January and February this year.
There are more than 100 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which straddles the so-called “Ring of Fire” around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
New Zealand’s White Island, also known by the Maori name of Whakaari, has been closed since a disaster in 2019 when a volcanic eruption killed 22 people, mostly tourists. It regularly hosted visitors, although eruptions were not uncommon.
Despite such incidents, visits to volcanoes remain popular and, by properly managing risks, the chance of accidents can be minimized, said Tom Pfeiffer, a geologist and volcanologist who runs VolcanoDiscovery, a company in Germany .
They organize trips to volcanoes around the world in small groups, taking around 150 people a year to places including Java, Sulawesi, Sicily, and also Iceland. He said that interest in visiting volcanoes fluctuated slightly, depending on the amount of media attention they were receiving, but was generally fairly steady.
“I am sure that the average number of volcano tourist accidents is much lower than the average number of mountain sports accidents,” Pfeiffer said by email. “This is also true despite the very rare cases of major disasters such as the recent one at Marapi.”
Pfeiffer said many of the accidents that have occurred are due to a lack of preparation or information, or taking too much risk. The volatility of anything going wrong could be mitigated by relying on local advice from authorities, volcano observatories and relying on guides with extensive experience.
“When in doubt, we never take the risk,” he said.
Iceland has seen a variety of eruptions in recent years, from those where lava flows from fissures – like the one last week – to ice-covered volcanoes spewing plumes of ash, where fire meets the ice. Many are major tourist attractions, and the risks have been well illustrated by local authorities.
The area around Grindavik remains closed, and Iceland’s Meteorological Office said on December 27 that magma continued to build up under Svartsengi on the Reykjanes peninsula, meaning a fresh eruption is likely.
Arnar Mar Olafsson, Director General of the Icelandic Tourist Board, said some travelers did not respect the closed zone around the eruption site and had to be turned around because they were heading towards the volcano.
“People want to be close to it and get closer and see it, but they often don’t realize how dangerous it is,” he said.
(Writing by Krisztina Than, editing by Daniel Flynn)
