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

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 communitybased 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

Analysis and Trends of Global Research on Nautical, Maritime and Marine Tourism

“…On the other hand, in the institutional sphere, the European Union applied a blue growth strategy in 2012 and established a series of subsectors in the area of the blue economy [68], including "Coastal and Maritime Tourism", which is particularly relevant in the evolution of sea-related tourism to ensure its sustainability [69,70]. Taking into account the evolution of maritime tourism as activities carried out at sea (navigation or deep sea), through a review of the literature and based on the contribution of the authors to this field of research, a new concept is proposed that integrates the subsector of the blue economy and the blue growth strategy, under the name of "blue tourism", with the sea as the protagonist and all those tourist activities of leisure and recreation developed in this environment.…”

Chernobyl

“…Looking formally, Chernobyl is a destination that is known for its technogenic nuclear catastrophe that happened in a peaceful period. In this sense, it is most comparable to Fukushima that has also been examined in the context of dark tourism (Yamamura, 2012;Lin et al, 2018) and much less -with Hiroshima that happened during a war period and much earlier (Broderick, 2010;Schafer, 2016). However, Chernobyl diff ers from Fukushima in terms of the damage to the nature in the region (Marino & Nunziata, 2018) and, much more importantly -by the remaining visitors of the potential danger at the site (especially, if they are not precisely following the regulations).…”

“…Th e term 'dark tourism' (used interchangeably with 'thanatourism') started to be used after Seaton (1996) specifi ed death-related tourist activity as 'thanatourism' and Lennon and Foley (2000) analysed the link between tourism attractions and an interest in death. Since then, there were several major eff orts to conceptualize dark tourism (Sharpley, 2005;Stone, 2006;Wight, 2006;Sharpley & Stone, 2009;Light, 2017); numerous studies have analyzed travelling to destinations that are linked with negative emotions and encounters (Broderick, 2010;Wei, 2012;Coats & Ferguson, 2013;Robinson, 2015;Schafer, 2016;Yan et al, 2016;Allman, 2017;Miller & Del Casino Jr, 2018;Lin et al, 2018). Th e early studies on dark tourism motivations have been signifi cantly disbursed in terms of their focus and factors considered.…”

Chain tourism in post-disaster recovery

“…Many communities recovering from a disaster distance themselves from dark tourism. The way the community perceives tourists and associated tourism activities is important to sustaining the tourism industry, particularly in a post-disaster context (Lin et al, 2017, 2018). In Japan following the 2011 disasters, Blue Tourism initiatives gained community support as a way to link the traditional industries and cultural identity of the community while allowing for commemoration and visitor activities (Lin et al, 2018).…”

“…The way the community perceives tourists and associated tourism activities is important to sustaining the tourism industry, particularly in a post-disaster context (Lin et al, 2017, 2018). In Japan following the 2011 disasters, Blue Tourism initiatives gained community support as a way to link the traditional industries and cultural identity of the community while allowing for commemoration and visitor activities (Lin et al, 2018). Positive or negative community perceptions or attitudes toward tourists and tourism activities are important indicators of residents’ support or opposition for the local tourism industry (Carmichael, 2000), thus playing an important role in determining the success or failure of the tourism industry (Sharpley, 2014).…”