PAHOA, Hawaii — People nixing vacations to Hawaii’s Big island has cost the tourism industry millions of dollars as the top attraction, Kilauea volcano, keeps spewing lava.
Cancellations from May through July have hit at least $5 million, said Ross Birch, executive director of the island’s tourism board.
The booking pace for hotels and other activities, such as tours for lava viewing, zip lines and glass bottom boats have fallen 50 percent. A handful of cruise ships have also decided not to come into port even in Kona on the west side of the island, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) away from the volcano.
This is the “first leak we’re seeing out of the bucket,” Birch said.
Tourism is one of Hawaii’s biggest industries and a big part of the local economy. The Big Island topped other islands in the archipelago pulling in $2.5 billion in revenue last year.
On Monday, another fissure spewing lava and unhealthy gas opened up, and a crack in the Earth that emerged a day earlier was sending molten rock on a slow run for the ocean, officials said.
The National Weather Service has warned residents of “light ashfall” throughout the day in Kau, the island’s southernmost district, after a burst of volcanic emissions around 9 a.m.
Nearly 20 fissures have opened since the Kilauea volcano started erupting 12 days ago, and officials warn it may soon blow its top with a massive steam eruption that would shoot boulders and ash miles into the sky.
A fissure that opened Sunday led authorities to order 10 people to flee their homes, Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe said. Overall, nearly 2,000 people have been told to evacuate since May 3, and lava has destroyed more than two dozen homes.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the flow from the crack that emerged Sunday was heading on a path that would take it to the ocean, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) away. No homes or roads were threatened by the flow.
Lava on Sunday spread across hundreds of yards of private land and loud explosions rocked the neighborhood not far from the Leilani Estates subdivision, where more than a dozen other active vents opened over the past week.
Nearby resident Richard Schott, 34, watched from a police checkpoint as the eruption churned just over a ridgeline and behind some trees.
“I’ve actually seen rocks fly over the tree line, and I can feel it in my body,” Schott said. “It’s like a nuclear reaction or something.”
Few fissures, ground deformation and abundant volcanic gases indicate eruptions on the eastern flank of Kilauea are likely to persist, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.
“The appearance of the fissures in the past couple of days does not change the overall picture or concern,” Geological Survey scientist Steve Brantley said.
Christian and Maritza Ricks, who moved to the area from California in April, stopped at the side of the road to watch and listen to the latest eruption.
“I guess it’s just part of living on the island,” Ricks said.
He said he wasn’t really afraid of the destruction happening around him.
“In a way, it’s kind of exciting to see what’s going on and be this close to it,” Christian Ricks said.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported a fissure opened Saturday just east of the Puna Geothermal Venture energy conversion plant, where steam and hot liquid are brought up through underground wells and the steam feeds a turbine generator to produce electricity.
As a precaution, plant workers last week removed 50,000 gallons (189,265 liters) of a flammable liquid stored at the site.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report.
Now that Garden Island admits that just these past month or so, $millions of tourist spending have been lost. It is not hard for taxpayers to deduce that during just one year, the tourist industry has generated untold $billions, of which you ask yourself (the average person), why has not my status of living gone up and have to work two and three full time jobs just to make ends meet?
It is quite obvious that these $billions are not going back to raise the standard of living for the average taxpayers and someone is getting really fat. Time to investigate where this money is actually going to.
You make it sound like someone or a single entity is siphoning up all these dollars for their own benefit. In reality, those millions of dollars of lost spending would otherwise have gone to hotels where tourists stay, to restaurants where they eat, to shops where they get their souvenirs, etc. Sometimes the money flows to corporations (which hire locals) and sometimes to the corner fruit stand but when the tourists don’t come, the money doesn’t flow. You ask why you have to work two and three full time jobs to make ends meet? It’s simple. Part of it is because of supply and demand. Most people consider this to be one of the most beautiful spots to live in the world, it’s in high demand but it’s only one spot, low supply so the cost is higher. Then the fact that nearly everything needs to be shipped in- more high costs. Lastly factor in we are a blue state, a liberal state where the people want to be responsible for less and demand the government provide more and more services and benefits which means higher taxes. Roll them all together and we get high costs of living.