Page 362 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

338 Part VII

years by the authors while doing field research at 9 Development of suitable factsheets with
volcanic destinations in several countries. A symbolic signage or pictograms should be
comprehensive review of existing literature as undertaken, which should be handed out to all
well as requests to authorities for updated safety visitors of volcanic environments, active as
guidelines which include temporary visitors well as dormant. Simple fact sheets following a
produced no results, apart from responses by generic template and containing essential
individual national parks that do what is possible information including emergency phone
to keep their visitors safe. However, as the numbers, hazard map with danger zones,
previous section showed, this is not enough to escape routes, shelter locations and collecting
give volcano tourists with language problems the points, which could largely be based on
information they need. The following pictograms for easy visual recognition (Erfurt-
recommendations are an option that could be Cooper, 2007a,b; 2008a,b; 2009).
used as a basis for an internationally applied code 10 Fact sheets should be short and precise – no
of conduct for visitor safety in active volcanic information overload.
environments: 11 Precise location maps – easy to interpret and
to follow – handed out at entrance to volcanic
1 Visitors to volcanic environments need to be environments. Multilingual editions should
made aware of the potential and individual include copies of signage of the area and
dangers relating to a particular area. pictograms. Where that is not possible, sufficient
2 The accumulation of relevant (and agreed) signage must be provided.
basic information and knowledge should be 12 Escape routes must be clearly marked – on
encouraged for all visitors of active volcanic printed maps and on sign posts in the field.
areas by the relevant authorities including Sign posts or guide posts could be colour
governments, local governing bodies, tourism coded to indicate whether the tourist is in a
organizations, tour organizers and operators. safe (green) zone or in a dangerous (yellow,
Information dissemination could also be orange, red) zone. It would also make rescue
through hotel receptions, vehicle hire efforts easier if these guide posts were numbered
companies, tour booking agencies, etc. (colour and numbers both have to be reflective
3 Updated advice on destinations should be to be useful after dark) and thus could be used
provided by all authorities, organizations and as markers to identify a location. Tourists need
companies involved, and should be made to be aware of the zone they are in at all
available through appropriate media outlets, times.
internet, etc. 13 More emergency shelters are needed and
4 Visitors must be made aware of the difference should contain posters with visual interpretation
between an acceptable and an unacceptable risk. of signs for potential danger situations,
5 Tour operators and tour guides, travel agents, emergency phones and possibly either webcams
tourist organizations and all information or CCTV surveillance in particularly dangerous
centres need to communicate very clearly any places.
possible risk factors involved in the products 14 Communication services such as local telecom
they sell. companies need to supply access (mobile
6 Tour guides need to be specially trained for phone reception) to remote areas if these are
emergencies and should have sufficient frequented by large numbers of tourists, as
geological knowledge to be able to assess many rely on their mobile phones to contact
situations of imminent danger. emergency services.
7 Guidelines and safety instructions must be 15 First aid kits should be available at these points
available in ALL major languages appropriate as well.
to the visitor patterns at a site. 16 Emergency phones also need to be installed at
8 More signage is needed in more languages and certain distance intervals, again with visual
more images for quick visual recognition. explanation of how to use them in an

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