The New York Times: “Belching Volcano and Flowing Lava Dent Tourism in Icelandic Region”

El economía de Islandia depende en gran medida de sus impresionantes paisajes volcánicos. Pero cuando estos se despiertan, los turistas y los negocios vinculados solo pueden disfrutar del espectáculo hasta que empiezan las evacuaciones.

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Molly Malcolm

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+ steaming: humeantes + azure: azzurre + to dip: darse un chapuzón + to burst: estallar + yet another: otra más + outbursts : explosiones + to ripple out: propagarse + looming: amenazante + drop: caída + to spout: salir a borbotones + unwarranted: injustificada + to flock: acudir en manada + northern lights: auroras boreales + Inn: posada + family-run : administrado por una familia + undermined: socavar + owes: deber + to seek out: buscar + untamed: salvaje, indómita + waterfalls: cascadas + hot springs: fuentes termales + to steer clear: mantenerse alejados + to ease: reducir, aliviar + somewhat: algo, un tanto + tricky: delicada, complicada
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Este artículo pertenece al número de june 2024 de la revista Speak Up.

The Blue Lagoon resort in the south of Iceland is a scenic network of steaming + steaming: humeantes  azure + azure: azzurre pools surrounded by dark rocks, where tourists dip + to dip: darse un chapuzón  in the geothermal water, have spa treatments and enjoy what the resort advertises as “a universe of radiant well-being.”

But last week, a stream of radiant lava burst + to burst: estallar from a crater a few miles from the resort, forcing it to evacuate hundreds of guests, in yet another + yet another: otra más  eruption of a volcano system in the Reykjanes Peninsula that had been dormant for eight hundred years.

Belching Volcano_AdobeStock00.jpg

The outbursts  + outbursts : explosiones began in 2021, and the eruptions and earthquakes in the peninsula have destroyed some houses and forced villagers from their homes. One construction worker went missing in the town of Grindavik after falling down a crack caused by an earthquake.

The effects of the volcanic eruptions have rippled out + to ripple out: propagarse beyond the peninsula, disrupting the tourism operations of a country that relies heavily on visitors.

Arnar Már Ólafsson, director general of the Icelandic Tourist Board, said that when a looming + looming: amenazante volcanic eruption led to the evacuation of Grindavik in November, it resulted in global anxiety that brought a drop + drop: caída  in tourists.

“A spouting + to spout: salir a borbotones  volcano doesn’t sound very inviting,” he said.

Icelandair, the country’s national airline, said it also saw a “significant negative impact on bookings” in the last months of 2023. And low-cost Icelandic airline Play said that news of the eruption “cooled demand for Iceland as a destination.”

The tourism board did not release an estimate for the financial losses, and the airlines, while saying they experienced significantly slowed sales, did not quantify them.

Airline officials and the tourism board director stated emphatically in interviews and in the national news media that the reaction was unwarranted + unwarranted: injustificada because the eruptions did not represent a direct threat to visitors or flights. They accused the news media of “alarmism.”

“In the international press, it just looks as if Iceland is ruined,” Birgir Jónsson, then Play’s chief executive, said in an interview published in December by a financial magazine.

Tourists used to flock + to flock: acudir en manada  to the Reykjanes Peninsula to watch the northern lights + northern lights: auroras boreales or bathe in the waters of the Blue Lagoon resort. But since the November earthquakes, the Blue Lagoon has had to close for some days. It said in a statement Wednesday that it had also shut down from March 16 until at least Thursday and would continue to follow authorities’ safety guidelines.

The Northern Light Inn + Inn: posada , a family-run  + family-run : administrado por una familia hotel, has also had to evacuate its guests four times since January and close for weeks, said Fridrik Einarsson, the inn’s owner. Now, the hotel is compensating for the drop in tourists by serving lunches to the construction workers building protection walls in the area.

“If this continues for a long period of time, it will eventually be very, very challenging for us,” Einarsson said.

Ólafsson said that any threat to the Blue Lagoon geothermal resort undermined + undermined: socavar a key component of Iceland’s tourism sector.

“Without the Blue Lagoon, it would be a different destination,” he said, “like Egypt without the pyramids or Paris without the Eiffel Tower.”

The resort is particularly popular with visitors from the United States, and every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit the spa, according to the Blue Lagoon’s website. The spa is now protected by barriers.

The resort owes + owes: deber its existence to the geothermal energy generated by the volcanic system, which heats up its waters. But that same system is also now its main threat.

That paradox, many say, is at the heart of Iceland’s identity as an adventure travel destination where tourists seek out + to seek out: buscar  untamed + untamed: salvaje, indómita  nature in the form of waterfalls + waterfalls: cascadas , glaciers and hot springs + hot springs: fuentes termales . And 130 volcanoes.

During the volcanic eruptions last year, as tourists flocked to sites where they could see the glowing river of lava, the government had to warn people to steer clear + to steer clear: mantenerse alejados of the area since the situation could turn dangerous.

Now, Icelandic tourism operators say, the anxiety has eased + to ease: reducir, aliviar  somewhat + somewhat: algo, un tanto , and tourism demand has gone up again since January. But for those remaining in the peninsula, there seems to be no immediate end in sight to the disruption of their businesses.

Last week, as Einarsson, the inn owner, evacuated his guests to another hotel because of the volcanic eruption, he said they could see lava from the parking lot.

“It’s quite a magnificent experience, to see a volcano,” he said.

Einarsson called his relationship to volcanoes a “tricky + tricky: delicada, complicada love-and-hate situation.”

On one hand, he said, “people are understandably concerned to stay in a hotel next to an eruption site.” On the other, he said, people come to Iceland for its nature, and the nature would not be the same without the country’s volcanoes.

“And I would not be in the business,” he said.  

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