The Odd Positive Impact Of Mount Mayon's Volcanic Eruption In The Philippines

Tourists have their photos taken at the famous Cagsawa Ruins with the backdrop of the Mount Mayon volcano in Albay province, 330 kilometers southeast of Manila on December 30, 2009. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

You might expect Filipinos to be freaking out as the Mount Mayon volcano spews fountains of lava east of Manila. In 1991 the eruption of Mount Pinatubo killed 722 people and left 200,000 homeless in the same country.

In Albay province, the location of the cone-shaped Mount Mayon (Red Cross map here), more than 90,000 people have been evacuated. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded ”near continuous” lava fountains February 6 and on January 29 logged a “lava effusion event” lasting 96 minutes as well as a fountain of lava 200 meters high. The government says it’s offering aid and volcanic activity info to keep the province safe.

However, the real impact of Mayon’s 2018 eruptions have been muted — a light hit to domestic airlines and overnight tourism, combined with a boom in day-trippers to surrounding Albay province. They’re going for up-close but safe views of the volcano.

Pause in flights

Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific Air and its subsidiary CebGo called off 10 flights January 26 to or from Legazpi, the nearest major city to Mount Mayon, Philippine-based ABS-CBN news reported. It spiked another eight from Feb. 1-3.

Cebu Pacific’s competitor Philippine Airlines says it canceled four flights from January 27 through 31 in light of a four-day airport closure that ended January 26, replaced by a government aviation authority caution that pilots avoid dangerous airborne ash. Neither airline answered requests for comment on the volcano’s impacts to business.

Spiked flights have dampened overnight stays in Albay province, says Dorothy Colle of the Albay Provincial Tourism Office.

Day-trippers

But highways and a railway line connect the volcanic province to Manila — unlike much of the Southeast Asian country that’s spread across thousands of islands. “There could be some disruption on flights but there is still land travel to the area,” notes Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro  UniBank in Metro Manila.

Day trips to Cagsawa Ruins, the province’s second most popular destination for non-overnight stays, rose last month to 22,078, up from 15,209 in January 2017, the tourism office said in an interview. Visitors to the ruins can photograph Mount Mayon clearly in the background on clear days, which are common at this time of year.

“I t’s been all over the news for two weeks now  and  due to the dynamic info-sharing on social media has helped boost interest in Mount Mayon’s eruptive events,” Colle said in late January. Mayon last blew in 2009, she says but “ that event was not as intense as the current eruption, which occurs successively every few hours.”

Some day-trippers stay after taking in the volcano views for kayaking, bamboo rafting and visits to a candy factory, all key to a provincial economy that’s otherwise dominated by farming.

Mayon isn’t the only volcano to attract tourists.   The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland gave the country a “jump start” in tourism that eased an economic recession following the 2008 financial crash, Iceland Magazine says.  In Japan, tourists watch bubbling volcanic features from observatories and may soak in nearby hot springs.

More on Forbes: Asia’s Three Most Dangerous Volcanoes

Mount Mayon also lies in a 5,459-hectare national park rather than at the edge of a major city. Its relative remoteness reduces threats to human life and property. Pinatubo heavily damaged Clark and Subic, sites of former U.S. military bases – which hastened their closures because of the volcano.

Human activity is banned only within six kilometers of the lava fountains so people avoid any rockfalls or explosions, this report says.

Lave flows from Mayon volcano at it continues to erupt as seen from Legazpi in Albay province, south of Manila, on January 25, 2018. (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

Warnings ahead of the Pinatubo eruption, though effective, were tough because people nearby spoke four dialects and there was a bit of local political friction at the time, this U.S. Geological Survey study says. That explosion, one of the most catastrophic in volcanic history, resulted in $374 million in economic losses.

Massive losses unlikely

The Mount Mayon region also contributes just 2% to the $305 billion Philippine GDP, muting the prospect of massive economic losses from any large-scale eruption, says Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moody’s Investors Service in Singapore.

“From an economic standpoint, the impact from an even larger eruption of Mount Mayon would be manageable,” de Guzman says.