Tourists walk on the flanks of the Tajogaite volcano, near Llanos de Aridane, on September 11, 2022 on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands. (AFP/Juan MAZA CALLEJA)
Teodoro Gonzalez advances in a forest on the ground covered with ashes by the volcano of La Palma. “It’s like walking on a new planet,” breathes this hiker, a year after the eruption that devastated the Spanish island.
When this volcano – now called Tajogaite and not Cumbre Vieja as during the eruption – woke up on September 19, 2021, this 54-year-old nurse had already rushed to the small island in the Canary archipelago to see the hot lava flows from his own eyes.
A year later, he returned, this time to admire the extinct volcano. “To see a volcano that has recently erupted is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said the 50-year-old, who came from the neighboring island of Tenerife.
Since the beginning of the eruption, which ended on December 25 after 85 days, tourists have flocked to discover these lunar landscapes. And interest in La Palma – one of the archipelago’s hitherto less visited islands – is booming.
According to the hotel organization ASHOTEL, the average occupancy rate in establishments on the island reached 90.9% in August. A number well above expectations.
“Before the eruption, we had trouble making ourselves known,” ASHOTEL vice-president Carlos Garcia Sicilia told AFP. “Certainly the volcano was a great misfortune, a blow to the island’s economy. But I think half the planet has heard of La Palma by now.”
– “Get as close as possible” –
Nicknamed “La Isla Bonita” (“The Beautiful Island”), La Palma is home to unspoiled nature, including verdant forests, rocky peaks and desert landscapes and has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco.
Tourists walk on the flanks of the Tajogaite volcano on September 12, 2022 in Los Llanos de Aridane, on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands (AFP/Desiree MARTIN)
Choice assets that tour operators intend to highlight: the number of cruise ships calling at La Palma has increased in recent months, as has the number of direct flights from mainland Spain and Europe. Low-cost airline Ryanair opened a base on the island in March.
The group Excursiones Jesus, which offers day trips by ferry from Tenerife, the most visited island in the Canary Islands, now offers three weekly trips compared to just one before the eruption.
“People want to get as close as possible to where the eruption happened,” company founder Jesus Molino told AFP.
Among the tourists flocking to the island are regulars, like Rita Ley, a 59-year-old German retiree who came to see what La Palma looked like a year later.
“It’s hard because everything was destroyed”, the lava flows having engulfed more than 1,000 houses, “but it’s interesting to see that the Earth is alive”, she confides.
– Travel vouchers –
For the government, which has distributed 20,000 travel vouchers of 250 euros to Spaniards that can be used in hotels and restaurants, tourism is seen as a way to revive the island’s economy.
To enhance its appeal, a giant zipline was inaugurated in the north of La Palma, as well as a visitor center at the astronomical observatory of Roque de los Muchachos.
A hill covered in ash a year after the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano, previously called Cumbre Vieja, on September 11, 2022 near Los Llanos de Aridane, on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands (AFP/Juan MAZA CALLEJA)
The authorities are also helping to rebuild tourist infrastructure as 3,000 of La Palma’s 8,000 tourist beds have been destroyed by lava or are located in areas where access is prohibited due to the persistence of dangerous volcanic gases.
But will these efforts allow a lasting presence of tourists on the island? In recent years, Hawaii and Iceland have also seen the number of visitors soar after eruptions, but the phenomenon has run out of steam.
A situation that the sector fears in La Palma. The volcanic eruption “won’t be as fresh in people’s minds” next year and the island may not be “as popular anymore”, predicts Jonas Perez, founder of Isla Bonita Tours.
© 2022 AFP
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