Tohoku Tsunami: A Case Study

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The tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 and the Tohoku Tsunami in March 2011 are just two examples of a number of natural disasters that have severely affected tourist destinations over the last decade. These examples highlight the vulnerability of tourists to disasters and emergency situations. The tourism sector is one of the largest industries in the world, in terms of employment and revenue. It faces challenges in coping with the impact of disasters, particularly in developing strategies to provide safety for tourists (Cioccio and Michael, 2007). It is commonly agreed in academia that there is currently no technique available to effectively cope with the negative impacts of disasters, such as the financial and human factors (Muskat, Nakanishi, Blackman, 2014). Natural disaster management is complex because many different actors from different organizations have to cooperate under great time pressure (Lauras, Truptil, Bénaben, 2015). This is even more complicated when natural disasters happen in tourist destinations, where tourists lack awareness of dangers and understanding of area specifics that are known to local residents. (Phillips and Morrow, 2007). This includes problems stemming from a low mastery of the local language and lack of orientation to safe places. …show more content…

It is shown that tourists have many different, but rational, responses to disasters. We argue that disaster management planning for tourism should consider the different rationalities of tourists’ behavioural responses to natural disasters. We therefore employ the Theory of Polyrationality (or Cultural Theory) to understand the diversity of tourists’ responses. Two research questions are

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