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

LIN, Yiwen, KELEMEN, Mihaela and TRESIDDER, Richard (2018). Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-18.

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Sheffield Business School Research Institute > Service Sector Management
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Sheffield Business School > Department of Service Sector Management
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2018.1511720
Page Range:	1-18
Depositing User:	Richard Tresidder
Date Deposited:	27 Sep 2018 15:04
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 02:31
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22675

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