Page 359 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

Conclusions and Recommendations 335

relating to risk and hazards for tourists on active Table 22.1 Responses to the question ‘which volcanoes
volcanoes from an expert point of view. The are your personal favourites?’
general comments from the 20 respondents Volcanoes nominated by survey respondents as their preferred
indicate that safety standards for tourists on mountains
volcanoes are not everywhere as they should be,
and these opinions were reinforced by informal ***** Kilauea, Hawai‘i * Fogo – Cap Verde
follow-up interviews with individual respondents. **** Montserrat, British * Lanzarote – Canary Islands
Questioned as to whether irresponsible overseas territory
behaviour by tourists on active volcanoes had *** Etna, Italy * Mauna Loa, Hawai‘i
been observed, 71 per cent said yes, while 13 per
cent said no and the remainder did not provide an *** Santa Maria /Santiaguito, * Mt St Helens, USA
answer. Most respondents also provided brief Guatemala
examples of their observations and offered remedial ** Merapi, Indonesia * Paricutin, Mexico
actions, but included some well-founded criticism
of some of the foolish actions they had witnessed. ** Santorini, Greece * Rainier, USA
In particular, several survey respondents who had ** Stromboli, Italy * Ruapehu, New Zealand
worked in Hawai‘i commented on ‘tourists
ignoring all advice on Kilauea’ and one respondent’s ** Teide, Spain * Rungwe Volcanic Province,
comments about their behaviour as observed Tanzania
while he worked at the volcano observatory there ** Vesuvius, Italy * Shasta, USA
for six months shows that:
** Yellowstone, USA * Tarawera, New Zealand
dangerous behaviour by tourists occurs on an almost
daily basis. There was also one death and one severe * Arenal, Costa Rica * Tongariro, New Zealand
burn accident while I was there. (pers. com) * Cotopaxi, Ecuador * Yasur, Vanuatu
The concern of several of the scientists was that * The Chilean volcanoes
‘irresponsible people will not change and
responsible people are doing the right thing Note: Five stars down to one star indicate the degree of popularity
anyway’, with a number of the respondents putting
the blame clearly on tourists who act carelessly,
often endangering others as well, including
potential rescue teams, which is unacceptable. Table 22.2 These volcanoes were considered to be the
most dangerous for visiting tourists
Personal observations and views of Location Evaluation by geoscientists
volcanologists and geoscientists (% of respondents)
This survey also led to the development of a list of Italian volcanoes (Etna, 25
volcanoes in order of popularity as nominated by Vesuvius)
scientists and volcanologists who are familiar with Hawai‘i (Kilauea, Mauna Loa) 22
them (Table 22.1). Five stars for Kilauea in Hawai‘i Merapi 12
are closely followed by Montserrat and Etna. The Yellowstone 11
results may not be representative for the whole
community of geoscientists or of the full range of Santa Maria – Santiaguito 8
geotourists, but certainly reflect the view of African volcanoes 7
individual scientists who are talking from personal Indonesian volcanoes 5
experience of working with these mountains. Montserrat 4
Another question asked was which volcanoes the
respondents would consider as the most dangerous Tarawera 3
ones for tourists and why. The ‘blacklisted’ Yasur 3

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