According to the minister, “a volcanic eruption is an opportunity to see a wonderful spectacle of nature, while always taking the necessary precautions.” “It was unheard of before you saw it with your own eyes, the last time a volcano erupted on the island of La Palma was 50 years ago,” she said.
The minister stressed that the island is still open to tourists who can come without fear. – If their hotel is threatened (by lava flow or volcanic ash), they will be moved to another hotel so they can enjoy their vacation and what nature has given us – and she confirmed.
Maroto announced that the Spanish Tourism Institute (Turispana) and the country’s embassies will provide all the information “for those who want to see this wonderful landscape of nature first hand.” She emphasized that so far, there are no restrictions on travel to La Palma, the airspace remains open and the hotels are operating without any obstacles.
According to Spanish Airports (Aena), visibility is good and it is up to the airlines to decide whether to close air traffic to La Palma. However, the Merchant Marine Department of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has banned shipping along the coast near the volcanic eruption for fear of the lava flow.
Read also: Canary Islands. Volcano erupts in La Palma
From Sunday, magma flows through the eight Cumbre Vega fissures. To date, more than 5.5 thousand. A person has been preventively evacuated from the threatened areas. The incandescent lava flowing towards the sea devoured more than a hundred homes, seven roads, and the school. Several other roads were closed to traffic. Farmland was destroyed.
In the image from NASA’s Terra Modis satellite, you can still see the plume of smoke from the volcanic eruption. More than 40 new homes have been evacuated in the coastal municipality of Tazacourt amid expectations that lava will reach the coast around 8 p.m. on Monday.
In the face of such a situation, the opposition right-wing People’s Party rejected Minister Maroto’s comments encouraging volcanic tourism as inappropriate. “These words are taking place at a time when hundreds of people are losing all their wealth,” PPP Secretary General Teodoro Garcia Igea said on Twitter.
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