Editorial | Adventure tourism should not put lives at risk
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is right to question why visitors were allowed on White Island after warnings were issued that volcano could erupt
Tourists seek new experiences. In New Zealand that includes spectacular scenery shaped and reshaped by relatively recent volcanic upheavals, geothermal parks and active volcanoes themselves.
The country chosen as the location for the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, including the volcano it immortalised, is a South Pacific magnet for adventure tourism. But adventure tourism is not without risks, as we have been reminded by the toll of the dead, missing and critically ill survivors after the White Island eruption disaster.
Our thoughts and prayers must be with the families mourning or waiting for news of victims. But people are asking why tourists were still allowed to visit the island after a recent destructive blast when it was deserted, and seismic monitoring experts had raised the eruption alert level just three weeks before the volcano blew.
Many on the island at the time belonged to a cruise-ship tour group who signed up for the adventure trip to the volcano island about 50km off the coast in the Bay of Plenty.
