Hawaii eruption brings tourism boon during slow season

By ANDREW SELSKY, AUDREY McAVOY and HAVEN DALEY
Associated Press

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — The spectacle of incandescent lava spewing from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa has drawn thousands of visitors and is turning into a tourism boon for a Big Island town near the world’s largest volcano. Some hotels in and around Hilo are becoming fully booked in what is normally a slower time of the year for business. Helicopter tours of Mauna Loa, which began erupting Sunday after being quiet for 38 years, are also in high demand by tourists and journalists. Hawaii’s travel industry normally falls off this time of year between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.