People nixing vacations to Hawaii’s Big Island has cost the tourism industry millions of US dollars as the top attraction, Kilauea volcano, keeps spewing lava.
Cancelations from this month through July have hit at least US$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.
Photo: Reuters
A handful of cruise ships have also decided not to sail into port even in Kona on the west side of the island, about 129km 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.
Photo: EPA
The industry grew the fastest on Big Island last year compared with other islands in the archipelago, pulling in about US$2.5 billion in visitor spending.
Most of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remains closed to visitors due to ongoing seismic activity and the possibility of an explosion at the summit.
On Monday, another fissure spewing lava and unhealthy gas opened up, and a crack that emerged a day earlier was sending molten rock on a slow run for the ocean, officials said.
Civil defense officials warned vents in the southeast section of the Lanipuna Gardens neighborhood were releasing levels of sulfur dioxide that pose an immediate danger to anyone nearby.
The gas could cause choking and make people unable to breathe, the county said as it warned people in the area to leave.
The National Weather Service warned residents of “light ashfall” throughout the day in Kau, the island’s southernmost district, after a burst of volcanic emissions at about 9am on Monday.
Nearly 20 fissures have opened since the Kilauea volcano started erupting 12 days ago and officials warn it could soon blow its top with a massive steam eruption that would shoot boulders and ash into the sky.
A fissure that opened on 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 US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the flow from the crack that emerged on Sunday was heading on a path that would take it to the ocean, about 3km away.
No homes or roads were threatened by the flow.
Lava on Sunday spread across hundreds of meters 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.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS