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CATANIA, Sicily —Mount Etna is demonstrating one of tourism’s strangest contradictions: the same eruption that is canceling hundreds of flights, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and costing Sicily’s tourism economy millions of euros is attracting extraordinary numbers of visitors to the volcano itself.
Europe’s highest and most active volcano has been erupting continuously for seven days, an unusually prolonged episode that scientists say has characteristics not seen on this scale since the late 1970s.
For Sicily’s tourism industry, however, the biggest problem is not lava. It is ash.
Catania-Fontanarossa Airport, the principal gateway to eastern Sicily and Italy’s fifth-busiest airport, has repeatedly suspended operations as volcanic ash entered surrounding airspace. On Thursday, August 13, airport operator SAC extended the suspension of arrivals until 8:00 a.m. Friday, August 14. Hundreds of flights have been canceled or diverted during the eruption, affecting thousands of passengers at the height of Europe’s summer holiday season.
The disruption is especially damaging because Sicily entered 2026 in a position of strength in tourism. Official regional figures show tourist arrivals to Sicily increased 2.8% in 2025 compared with 2024, while overnight stays increased 0.24%. Catania Airport handled 12.37 million passengers in 2025, illustrating how dependent eastern Sicily’s tourism economy has become on this single aviation gateway.
That gateway has now become the weak point in Sicily’s tourism infrastructure.
30,000 passengers affected — and tourism losses mounting
Initial estimates reported in Italy put tourism-related losses from the eruption at between €12 million and €24 million.
By August 12, approximately 30,000 passengers were estimated to have been affected, while Palermo Airport alone had absorbed 190 flights originally intended for Catania. Hotels, tour operators and business associations have begun warning about the wider economic consequences.
The disruption does not end when an aircraft lands somewhere else.
Passengers diverted to Palermo can suddenly find themselves approximately 200 kilometers from Catania. Buses have been crowded, taxis scarce and rental cars difficult to obtain. Travelers interviewed by Italian and international media have reported spending hours trying to find alternative transportation.
There have even been reports of travelers being quoted as much as €800 for taxi transfers across Sicilyafter diverted flights. Road construction on parts of the Palermo-Catania highway has compounded the problem.
Comiso, normally one of the logical relief airports for Catania, was itself temporarily affected by volcanic ash. Palermo and Trapani consequently became important alternatives.
Etna’s ash has even exported the aviation crisis beyond Italy. The cloud traveled roughly 220 kilometers south across the Mediterranean to Malta, where 19 flights were canceled on Tuesday, with others substantially delayed.
For an island destination, this is more than an airport problem. It exposes a tourism vulnerability: when aviation at Catania fails, the consequences rapidly spread to hotels, tour companies, transfers, rental cars, restaurants and visitors with prepaid itineraries.
But on Etna, tourists are coming — in exceptional numbers
The situation on the volcano itself could hardly be more different. Instead of driving visitors away, the spectacle of glowing lava, fountains, ash columns and illuminated slopes is attracting large crowds.
Nature guide Cristian Alessi of EtnaWay told Euronews that there were “too many people and too many cars parked in a chaotic way.”
He compared the crowds to Taormina or Catania on a Saturday.
Roads and trails leading to observation areas have become congested, and some visitors are attempting to move closer to the active area.
Alessi reported seeing people standing on the rim of the Valle del Bove on an unstable slope near the volcanic activity. “It is wonderful to see, but it has to be done safely, with guides,” he said. That represents an important distinction for travelers and for international coverage of the eruption.
Etna tourism has not shut down.
In fact, demand to see the volcano appears to have increased.
The tourism damage is concentrated primarily in aviation disruption, uncertainty, cancellations and access logistics, rather than a collapse in demand for Etna itself.
August was already Etna’s busiest visitor period before the eruption. Local guide information describes August as bringing the largest number of visitors to the mountain. The eruption has effectively added “lava tourism” to an already peak-season destination.
No mass evacuation of Catania
Images of a spectacular volcanic eruption can easily create an impression internationally that Sicily is undergoing a disaster evacuation. That is not the situation currently being reported.
The active lava flows do not presently threaten inhabited areas, according to Salvo Gambino, director of INGV’s Etnean Observatory in Catania.
The eruption involves several sectors of the volcano. Lava fountains and ash emissions are continuing from the Voragine crater, while several vents in the Valle del Bove are feeding a lava field.
There has therefore been no general evacuation of Catania or the tourism communities surrounding Etnaassociated with the current eruption.
The people effectively being “evacuated” or displaced in large numbers are airline passengers: diverted to Palermo, Trapani or other airports, stranded in terminals or forced to reorganize their journeys.
On Etna itself, the challenge is almost the reverse — authorities and rescue organizations are trying to manage too many visitors, rather than evacuating an endangered local population. The Alpine Rescue service has issued warnings after several call-outs involving visitors during the eruption.
A different eruption from Etna’s usual short performances
Scientists say the duration of the current activity is significant.
Gambino told Euronews that although similar volcanic processes have occurred before, Etna’s recent lava fountains and flows generally lasted only a few hours or half a day.
This eruption has continued for seven days.
“Similar phenomena were seen in the late 1970s,” he said.
Scientists suspect magma rising from greater depth and containing more gas may help explain the prolonged activity. Italian Volcanological Association president Marco Viccaro similarly described the episode as more energetic than recent events, with deeper, gas-rich magma producing more efficient fragmentation — and consequently more ash.
- That ash is crucial to understanding the tourism crisis.
- A lava flow confined to Etna can become a tourism attraction.
- An ash plume drifting toward Catania Airport can become an international transportation emergency.
Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci provocatively summarized the perennial Sicilian dilemma: “It is not the volcano that is out of place, but the airport.”
Sicily has been here before — but not quite like this
Etna routinely disrupts aviation, and tourism operators are accustomed to adapting.
Only last month, volcanic activity closed Catania Airport for two days on July 5 and 6. Flights resumed after the volcanic aviation warning was reduced from red to orange.
That history explains why many local tourism businesses do not automatically cancel excursions in response to an Etna eruption. Some operators actively market eruptions as an opportunity. Go-Etna, for example, tells customers that its tours have generally not been affected by eruptions in recent years and says eruptions can make excursions more spectacular, including opportunities for night tours when conditions permit.
The August event differs in its duration and sustained ash production. For tourism planners, that means Etna itself may remain commercially attractive while the transportation system needed to bring tourists to Sicily becomes unreliable.
The bigger question for Sicily tourism
Etna is one of Sicily’s greatest tourism assets. It is also a permanent operational risk. The current eruption exposes the contradiction dramatically.
- Visitors already in Sicily are rushing toward the volcano to photograph lava.
- Visitors trying to reach Sicily cannot land.
- Visitors trying to leave are discovering their flights cancelled.
- Hotels may simultaneously receive unexpected stranded passengers while losing guests who never arrived.
- Palermo is receiving diverted aircraft, but passengers then need buses, trains, taxis or rental vehicles to reach eastern Sicily. Comiso can provide backup capacity — until ash affects Comiso too.
The eruption therefore raises a broader destination-management question: Should Sicily’s tourism resilience strategy rely less on Catania Airport and more on an integrated island-wide transportation network?
Industry organizations are already calling for better, more permanent coordination among airports, airlines, tourism operators, and authorities. The recurring Etna problem has also revived debate about better rail and road connections between Sicily’s airports.
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