VIDEO: Tragedies not fuelling a decline in volcano tourism

BILL BIRTLES, REPORTER:  It’s just after two in the morning and hundreds of people are climbing to a vantage point.

In the pre-dawn chill, they’re waiting for the sun to rise over Mount Bromo - one of Indonesia’s most famous active volcanoes.

With the taller Mount Semeru puffing steam and gas behind it, Bromo’s huge crater comes into clear view.

VOX POP (subtitled):   It’s my very first time. My impression is positive, it’s a really-really different experience to other places. 

BILL BIRTLES:  It’s an extraordinary sight few countries can offer.

VOX POP 2:  It’s not every day you can see a live active volcano. So it’s one of the nearest from Singapore.

Today is not what I expect, because from the picture I am expecting a lot of fog but this morning there’s no fog actually, but of course, there are a lot of people, and the view is magnificent actually.

BILL BIRTLES:  With more than 100 active volcanoes, Indonesia has built a tourism industry around them, drawing visitors from across the country and the world.

Local guides like Junaedi make a living taking people up, and even though Mount Bromo is about as easy as it gets, some still struggle.

JUNAEDI, VOLCANO TOUR GUIDE (subtitled):  Each time I stand here, it feels like a reminder (of how small we are). It feels incredible. It makes us so grateful.

Bromo is a very active volcano. It can erupt a few times each year, but the big one happened about two or three years ago.

BILL BIRTLES:  Here at the crater, you can hear the energy, you can feel the force rising up from within the earth and scientists who monitor this volcano are adamant that we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it if there was a risk of an eruption.

JUNAEDI (subtitled):  They monitor volcanic movements by the second. The changes happen so fast, and they can quickly anticipate when the volcanos reach a dangerous level. 

BILL BIRTLES:  But not everywhere is as regulated as Mount Bromo.

University student Bima Pratama Nasra was among 75 hikers on Mount Marapi in Sumatra when it suddenly erupted in early December.

BIMA PRATAMA NASRA, UNIVERSITY STUDENT (subtitled):  I decided to climb Marapi because I thought it would look beautiful from up there.

BILL BIRTLES:  For years, local authorities had banned hikers going within three kilometres of the crater - but it wasn’t enforced.

BIMA PRATAMA NASRA (subtitled):  When the eruption happened, Marapi sounded like it coughed twice.

After the first cough a friend, Irfanda, told us to run. But after less than a minute of running, we heard rumbling sounds and then it was raining rocks.

That rock rain lasted for a long time and the rocks were big - about the size of our heads - and they kept falling.

BILL BIRTLES:  His friend Randy Efendi took Bima down the mountain to safety. Twenty-four others, mostly young students, higher up the mountain weren’t so lucky.

Despite his ordeal Bima says he would be willing to try to climb volcanoes again.

BIMA PRATAMA NASRA:  I heard (Marapi was dangerous). But then everywhere we go there are risks. And Marapi is an active volcano.

DR ANA CASAS RAMOS, VOLCANOLOGIST, ANU: What I think that people thinking tourism in volcanoes should know is that the risk of an eruption in an active volcano is never going to be zero.

BILL BIRTLES:  Volcanoes are a tourist drawcard around the world. Iceland’s volcanoes regularly attract big crowds.

And it’s not just Indonesia where things can go horribly wrong.

In 2019, 22 people, mostly tourists, died after a volcanic eruption on White Island in New Zealand. 

Canberra-based volcanologist Dr Ana Casas Ramos has travelled the world to study the fire and fury of volcanoes.

ANA CASAS RAMOS:  It’s a very overwhelming feeling. I therefore understand why people are keen to climb or hike volcanoes, because once you’re on the top, I think the feeling that you get is very humbling, it is very overwhelming. You see nature in a way that is hard to describe, quite frankly.

BILL BIRTLES:  She says with so many volcanoes, Indonesia’s scientific monitoring is well regarded but enforcement of climbing bans can be an issue.

ANA CASAS RAMOS:  Either people are perhaps too used to the volcanic activity that they pretty much neglect that risk or underestimate it, or there have been disasters where a volcano has not erupted in let’s say in hundreds of years, so there’s no way that they can have that notion of risk.

BILL BIRTLES:  While the tragedy has put the dangers of volcanoes back in the spotlight, anecdotally, it hasn’t dimmed the desire for people to climb them.

Back on Mount Bromo, tour guide Junaedi says from all around the world, the tourists keep coming.

JUNAEDI (subtitled):  It’s not declining at all, More and more tourists are coming - it’s packed especially during the new year holiday.

It is our responsibility as guides to anticipate (problems) and make sure that our clients return home safely.