Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan

Lin, Yiwen; Kelemen, Mihaela; Tresidder, Richard

Abstract

Post-disaster tourism is often perceived as a form of Dark Tourism associated with death, loss and destruction. In Japan, the term Dark Tourism has gained prominence following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. This paper focuses on a community-led approach to post-disaster tourism development, initiated in the coastal area of Minamisanriku and labelled by the locals Blue Tourism. From its inception Blue Tourism incorporated non-dark activities which concentrated on the beauty of nature, social and environmental sustainability and the development of an enriched tourist experience. Its co-creational ethos helped transform some of the negative narratives of loss associated with Dark Tourism into positive accounts of communal renewal and hope. The paper highlights the limitations of Dark Tourism to post-disaster recovery and contributes new insights to the community-based tourism literature. We argue that Blue Tourism is not a type of Dark Tourism but a form of resilience which builds around local place-based practices and traditional community knowledge. Consequently, it is capable of achieving sustainable disaster recovery and tourist satisfaction simultaneously.AQ4

Citation

Lin, Y., Kelemen, M., & Tresidder, R. (2018). Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(10), 1766-1783. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1511720

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 5, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 10, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Sustainable Tourism
• Print ISSN: 0966-9582
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-7646
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 1766-1783
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1511720
• Keywords: Post-disaster tourism; Dark Tourism; service co-creation; community-based tourism; post-disaster recovery; Japan
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2598125
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669582.2018.1511720
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sustsainable Tourism on 24 Sep 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09669582.2018.1511720