[Rockhounds] How safe is volcano tourism?

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

As far as volcano tourism goes travellers tend to fall into two camps:
those who stay clear and those who want to get closer.

Volcano tourism has been increasing since British businessman Thomas Cook
took the first group of visitors to see Mount Vesuvius
<https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240321-the-risk-of-volcano-eruption-in-naples-vesuvius-campi-flegrei>
in
1841. Today, millions of people flock to places like Iceland, Italy and
Hawai'i to experience the explosive power of local volcanoes. There's also
an increasing number of ways for travellers to experience these natural
formations, from a simple hike
<https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/hikes_day.htm> at Volcanoes
National Park <https://www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm> in Hawai'i to rappelling
<https://ultimatevolcanoexpeditions.com/vanuatu> into an active volcano in
Vanuatu's Ambrym Island.

In Iceland, one of the country’s most visited sites, the Blue Lagoon
<https://www.bluelagoon.com/> spa, has recently been evacuated
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c844em2ey7eo> because of volcanic
activity in the area, the fifth such eruption since December 2023. The spa,
which is located just 5km from the small fishing town of Grindavík where
the eruption took place, is heated by geothermal power
<https://www.bluelagoon.com/about/water> thanks to its location in a lava
field. Though there are no reported deaths associated with this eruption,
several incidents of tourist deaths at other volcanoes have left many
people questioning the safety of volcano tourism as a whole.

In 2019, 22 people died and 25 were injured on a tourist expedition to
Whakaari <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68443402>/White Island, a
stratovolcano off New Zealand's coast, when superheated steam erupted from
the volcano – a tragedy explored in the 2022 Netflix documentary The
Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari. In 2023, one of the most active and popular
volcanoes on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Mount Marapi
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67621787>, killed 23 hikers and
injured dozens more when it unexpectedly spewed superheated ash.

So, is volcano tourism safe? Luckily for adventure travellers, experts say
yes – with some very important caveats.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240529-how-safe-is-volcano-tourism