The Blue Lagoon resort within the south of Iceland is a scenic community of steaming azure swimming pools surrounded by darkish rocks, the place vacationers dip within the geothermal water, have spa therapies and luxuriate in what the resort advertises as “a universe of radiant well-being.”
However final week, a stream of radiant lava burst from a crater just a few miles from the resort, forcing it to evacuate tons of of friends, in one more eruption of a volcano system within the Reykjanes Peninsula that had been dormant for 800 years.
The outbursts started in 2021, and the eruptions and earthquakes within the peninsula have destroyed some homes and compelled villagers from their properties. One development employee went lacking within the city of Grindavik after falling down a crack attributable to an earthquake.
The consequences of the volcanic eruptions have rippled out past the peninsula, disrupting the tourism operations of a rustic that depends closely on guests.
Arnar Már Ólafsson, director common of the Icelandic Vacationer Board, stated that when a looming volcanic eruption led to the evacuation of Grindavik in November, it resulted in international nervousness that introduced a drop in vacationers.
“A spouting volcano doesn’t sound very inviting,” he stated.
Icelandair, the nation’s nationwide airline, stated it additionally noticed a “vital destructive influence on bookings” within the final months of 2023. And the low-cost Icelandic airline Play stated that information of the eruption “cooled demand for Iceland as a vacation spot.”
The tourism board didn’t launch an estimate for the monetary losses, and the airways, whereas saying they skilled considerably slowed gross sales, didn’t quantify them.
Airline officers and the tourism board director said emphatically in interviews and within the nationwide information media that the response was unwarranted as a result of the eruptions didn’t signify a direct risk to guests or flights. They accused the information media of “alarmism.”
“Within the worldwide press, it simply seems as if Iceland is ruined,” Birgir Jónsson, then Play’s chief govt, stated in an interview revealed in December by a monetary journal.
Vacationers used to flock to the Reykjanes Peninsula to observe the northern lights or bathe within the waters of the Blue Lagoon resort. However for the reason that November earthquakes, the Blue Lagoon has needed to shut for some days. It stated in a press release on Wednesday that it had additionally shut down from March 16 till no less than Thursday and would proceed to comply with the authorities’ security tips.
The Northern Mild Inn, a family-run lodge, has additionally needed to evacuate its friends 4 instances since January and shut for weeks, stated Fridrik Einarsson, the inn’s proprietor. Now, they’re compensating for the drop in vacationers by serving lunches to the development staff constructing safety partitions within the space.
“If this continues for a protracted time period, it should finally be very, very difficult for us,” Mr. Einarsson stated.
Mr. Ólafsson stated that any risk to the Blue Lagoon geothermal resort undermined a key part of Iceland’s tourism sector.
“With out the Blue Lagoon, it will be a unique vacation spot,” he stated, “like Egypt with out the pyramids or Paris with out the Eiffel Tower.”
The resort is especially standard with guests from the USA, and yearly, tons of of hundreds of individuals go to the spa, in line with the Blue Lagoon’s web site. The spa is now protected by boundaries.
The resort owes its existence to the geothermal vitality generated by the volcanic system, which heats up its waters. However that very same system can also be now its predominant risk.
That paradox, many say, is on the coronary heart of Iceland’s id as an journey journey vacation spot the place vacationers search out untamed nature within the type of waterfalls, glaciers and sizzling springs. And 130 volcanoes.
Throughout the volcanic eruptions final 12 months, as vacationers flocked to websites the place they may see the glowing river of lava, the federal government needed to warn folks to keep away from the realm for the reason that state of affairs might flip harmful.
Now, Icelandic tourism operators say, the nervousness has eased considerably, and tourism demand has gone up once more since January. However for these remaining within the peninsula, there appears to be no instant finish in sight to the disruption of their companies.
Final week, as Mr. Einarsson, the inn proprietor, evacuated his friends to a different lodge due to the volcanic eruption, he stated they may see lava from the parking zone.
“It’s fairly an impressive expertise, to see a volcano,” he stated.
Mr. Einarsson referred to as his relationship to volcanoes a “difficult love and hate state of affairs.”
On one hand, he stated, “individuals are understandably involved to remain in a lodge subsequent to an eruption website.” On the opposite, he stated, folks come to Iceland for its nature, and the character wouldn’t be the identical with out the nation’s volcanoes.
“And I might not be within the enterprise,” he stated.
Egill Bjarnason contributed reporting from Gran Canaria, Spain.
