Page 250 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

Volcano Tourism and its Influence on the Territory of Mt Etna (Italy) — Explored with Digressions to Stromboli (Italy) 227

preferred the more comfortable access roads to open only during the season and generally it is
NN on the south flank (Behnke and Struck, rather difficult to buy everyday commodities. But
2005). That gave NN a competitive edge and the unlike at Mt Etna, tourists do have the possibility
PP station was not able to reduce this advantage. to visit a small but highly informative visitor
For many years the station was spared the centre and a museum near Scari, if they are
damage caused by major eruptions. However, on interested in the volcano, its geological evolution
the first day of the 2002–2003 eruption, which and activity.
affected the south and north-east flanks, nearly all
of its buildings were damaged by an earthquake Visitors’ demand, profile,
and after this it was nearly completely overrun and
buried by lava flows (Behnke and Struck, 2005). interest and activities at Mt
All buildings, like the hotels and restaurants, Etna and Stromboli
souvenir shops, a ski school and a large part of the
access road disappeared under the lava. Although Visitor demand
the eruption was short, the negative effects on Tourist demand in the area of Mt Etna is difficult
tourism business were worse. The destruction was to assess and the investigation of tourist flows is
nearly complete and reconstruction started only neither in quantitative nor qualitative terms easy
slowly. The province distributed aid subsidies for to implement. Only a few official statistics exist.
reconstruction works late and sparsely. The access Perhaps because Etna Park admission is free,
road was completed in the summer of 2004 and a currently no organizations are assigned with the
few souvenir shops and provisional containers task of data collection on tourism. The authorities
have opened, to run a tourism business in any way of the park should provide this function, but
they can. during the last three decades no efforts have been
Besides these two main tourist locations there made to do this. The only material available is
are some minor tourist structures in the area of Mt some surveys about accommodation facilities in
Etna: small hotels, a few restaurants, private bed & the municipalities of the park (Tables 15.1–15.3)
breakfast guesthouses, ‘agriturismi’ institutions and and these statistics from the AAPIT illustrate
two tourist information bureaus in the periphery. amounts of international and national registered
Theoretically, it seems that the infrastucture and guests, based on provincial considerations.
the tourist facilities of the Etna Park are similar to The volcano tourism business on Etna is
other national parks elsewhere in Europe, but in essentially an inbound tourism (AAPIT, 2005).
fact there are big differences. For example, the The majority of all registered visitors are Italians
visitor centres are located in small villages far away (Table 15.2), especially inhabitants of Sicily.
from the hot-spots of tourist demand, and are only International visitors are mainly from Europe, in
reachable by tourists with a car (and guide-books). the first instance from France and Germany
Also, while information is available in Italian or (Figure 15.2). Nevertheless, these official data are
French, the equipment and the scale of information not reliable because hotel owners and other hirers
is more that of a rural museum of local history of hesitate to register a significant number of guests,
the post-war period rather than a visitor centre in in order to save taxes (Behnke and Struck, 2005).
one of the most famous volcanic regions on Earth. The biggest problem in quantifying tourist
Altogether, the tourist structures in the Etna Park flows at Etna is tabulating the numbers of day-
are far away from international standards, even visitors. A large number of domestic visitors spend
behind the development of other Italian nature a day trip at the volcano. So far, it is impossible to
reserves like Trentino. quantify how many tourists visit the volcano every
In contrast, Stromboli does not have a tourist year, because neither the cable car nor the jeep
station. The island has preserved its low-key company STAR/SITAS can be consulted. Both
historical style. A few shops and restaurants, a are private enterprises that keep their data
pharmacy, a bookshop, a post-office and one undisclosed. Therefore, the annual number of
bakery provide tourists their services. Most shops visitors has to be estimated, and is nearly one

Ch15.indd 227 3/28/2010 1:30:37 PM