Big Island eruption could cost Hawaii $200m, study finds

LOS ANGELES - The loss of tourism on Hawaii's Big Island from the eruption of the Kilauea volcano run as high as $200 million, a study found.

Doctor Mark Kimura, an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said the Big Island may have already lost 38,000 potential visitors and around $50 million in potential tourism expenditure in May and June.

"Tourism has seasonality and cycles, so rather than comparing the current numbers to previous months, year-on-year growth rates are more helpful. The year-on-year growth of monthly visitors to the Big Island was minus 2 percent in May and minus 5 percent in June. Since Hawaii's tourism has been growing steadily, this is clearly unusual," Kimura wrote in an email.