People tour Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, the United States, Sept. 22, 2018. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park located in the U.S. Pacific island state of Hawaii reopened Saturday morning after being closed for 134 days due to the eruption of Kilauea volcano. (Xinhua/Chen Bing)
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park located in the U.S. Pacific island state of Hawaii reopened Saturday morning after being closed for 134 days due to the eruption of Kilauea volcano.
"We are OPEN! Happy Welcome Back day and National Public Lands Day. It's a fee free day," the park wrote in a message posted on its official Facebook page.
Park officials reminded tourists to be patient to find a parking space because most parking lots near the summit are full.
"Tourists all rejoiced at the reopening of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. But some of them were still a little worried about the threat of Kilauea volcano," said Chen Bing, a local tour operator told Xinhua via Wechat.
"Some parts of the park remain off limits due to safety concerns," said Chen, adding that park officials are on duty to help tourists.
Kilauea volcano, one of the youngest and most active volcanoes in the world, had been erupting nearly continuously since early May, prompting the closure of two-thirds of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Lava from the volcano has destroyed hundreds of homes in the island and dramatically changed the landscape.
The cumulative expenditure loss to the tourism of Big Island inflicted by the Kilauea volcano eruption may turn out to be as high as approximately 200 million U.S. dollars, according to a study released last month by Mark Kimura, an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
