Page 112 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

On the Economics and Social Typology of Volcano Tourism with Special Reference to Montserrat, West Indies 89

with a resignation that it is here to stay for the
foreseeable future are essential psychological
factors that both islanders and potential tourists
alike need to face. Since 1995 a scientific team of
international experts, set up to advise the governing
body on Montserrat, have been monitoring the
volcano and assessing the risk to the local
population of future eruptions or other kinds of
potential non-eruptive hazards including mudflows
and dust inhalation. Their conclusions (as of 2009)
are that there is an 80 per cent chance the current
eruptive phase will last for the next five years, and
a 50 per cent chance the volcano will be active for
the next 33 years. It may of course erupt at any Figure 6.2 Hazard Map of Montserrat. The island is
time. divided into six land zones and two maritime exclusion
A key development in monitoring volcanic zones
activity was the setting up of the Montserrat
Volcano Observatory (MVO), beginning its life as Note: Even if the risk level is deemed high in the south, the region north
of the zone boundary crossing the Centre Hills has unrestricted visitor
the Soufrière Hills Volcano Observatory in July access
1995, and changing its name to the MVO when it
moved to a rented villa in Olde Town in October Source: Montserrat Volcano Observatory
of that year. The role of the observatory as
originally formulated was to gather geophysical Transport and infrastructure
and geological data on the state of the volcano and Prior to 1995 Montserrat had an international
make available that data to the risk assessors. Early airport and jetty allowing passengers to disembark
in the eruption cycle this made sense, and while by ferry or from cruise liners that circuit the
the primary remit of the MVO must remain the Lesser Antilles in abundance. Both were destroyed
safety of the islanders, we argue here that it can in the 1995 eruption. The airport WH Bramble
and should be used to play a wider role in tourism (Blackburne) in the north-east is now completely
development focused explicitly on the volcano. unusable and the capital, Plymouth, was destroyed
The risks surrounding volcano tourism relate by a succession of devastating mudflows (see
directly to the style of volcanic activity. Basically Figure 6.3b). At present there is no way onto the
there are two kinds of volcano, ones that erupt island by ferry. In 2005 a new airport, ‘Gerald’s
mostly lava such as the shield volcanoes of Hawai‘i Airport’, was built on the north side of the island
and the Galapagos Islands, and those that erupt at a cost of £28M, but it is smaller than the old
explosively and catastrophically (e.g. Pinatubo, Mt one and flights arrive from Antigua via two Twin
St Helens). The latter are by far the more Otter aircraft each with a seat capacity of only 18.
dangerous and account for the majority of lives So, passengers from cruise liners cannot disembark
lost during eruptions. Montserrat falls into the and inbound flights are volume constrained.
latter category, meaning the risk of injury to the Helicopter tours run from Antigua that allow
casual visitor is much higher. However, it is sightseers to view the volcano but do not land.
important to note that even on Montserrat itself Presently no charge is made by the island for use
the risk is variable, meaning that the northern part of its air space.
of the island is low risk even though the volcano Clearly much more needs to be done before
is on a high state of alert (Figure 6.2). This accurate the tourist trade can pick up substantially. The bare
but nonetheless confusing state of affairs needs minimum would be a new jetty, but because of
very clear and careful external communication to current hazard restrictions this would need to be
potential visitors. A sophisticated mechanism for on the north of the island. A potential site has
doing this is at present lacking. been identified on the north-west coast (Little

Ch06.indd 89 3/28/2010 1:27:40 PM