Book review of "Volcano and Geothermal Tourism: sustainable geo-resources for leisure and recreation" by Patricia Erfurt Cooper and Malcolm Cooper (Eds.), Earthscan, London

Abstract

[Extract] In some senses tourism is about difference, and for most people there are few environments on Earth which are more different from the everyday experience than its many volcanos. There is a great variety of volcanos, some of plangeant beauty, perhaps most notably Mt Fuji in Japan. Others may not be apparent as volcanic to the untrained eye- an extinct volcano looms over Edinburgh (see Chapter 18 for a discussion of volcano tourism in Scotland), the great central massifs of France (see Chapter 17) and India are ancient lava flows, while many volcanos are active, posing potential and real, sudden danger both to local populations and to tourists. This book was published before the great shut down of European airtraffic following the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull in April 2010 (see CNN 2010), but within months there were serious eruptions of Merapti Indonesia, and elsewhere. (The Smithsonian Global Volcanic Activity Report is one of several websites providing current information on volcanic activity).