Disaster tourism and disaster landscape attractions after Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

PurposeThe paper's primary goals are three‐fold: to explore how disaster tourism serves as a vehicle for self‐reflection in respect to how the disaster tour affects the tourist; to understand how cultures adapt to abrupt change; and to understand how the tourism industry can lead to the cultural and economic revitalization of devastated areas.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on sociological theory, experience, and participant observation to complete an autoethnographic study of a “disaster tour” in and around the New Orleans, Louisiana, metropolitan area.FindingsConveying information via auto‐ethnographic disaster tourism helps readers develop an understanding of others by being immersed in the tour experience. Placing the researchers in the midst of the analysis presents a perspective of the cultural mix of New Orleans as place set apart, even among places in the south. Finally, this study highlights the importance of a rapidly rebounding tourism industry by “branding” New Orleans as a “Come back city.”Research limitations/implicationsBecause the research employs an auto‐ethnograpic approach, it may not be possible to duplicate the observations and findings, which are subject to the interpretations of the reader.Originality/valueThe contribution of this work to the literature is its highlighting of the flexibility of the tourism industry after a catastrophe and noting that tour guides frame the reconstruction process as “signs of hope” and “rebirth,” rather than a city in decline. Readers come to understand that the key to the revival of New Orleans is how disaster tourists understand the disaster as well as the recovery process.

Social disruption of the tourism and hospitality industries: implications for post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery

“…As the first category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, along the Louisiana coast with a storm surge that breached the New Orleans levee system sending water that would eventually cover a large portion of the city (Miller, 2008). With extensive damage to the region, Hurricane Katrina quickly became the most destructive and costly hurricane in the western hemisphere since the beginning of recorded history.…”

Two Sides of a Coin: A Crisis Response Perspective on Tourist Community Participation in a Post-Disaster Environment

“…Globally, natural disasters have a significant impact on the tourism industry, for instance, earthquakes and tsunamis have caused huge losses to tourist destinations [12], drastically reduced the number of visitors to the relevant locations [13], severely damaged attractions and tourism facilities [11], and made community livelihood difficult to sustain [14]. On the other hand, these crisis events realized some opportunities, as well: They increase global attention on tourist destinations [25], natural disasters often create new tourist landscapes [46], post-disaster reconstruction currently involves some new tourism companies [26] and have recently started some new tourism projects [47]. In particular, collectivist institutions like China adopted counterpart aid construction in areas affected by the Wenchuan earthquake, following which funds were directly injected to 21 provinces and cities, such as Beijing, to support major disaster-affected counties and guide the promotion of post-disaster social and economic development.…”

Abrupt new realities amid the disaster landscape as one crisis gives way to crises

“…Throughout history, disasters, the threat of impending catastrophe or nature's wrath in the form of earthquakes, drought, forest fires, storms, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, have brought abrupt changes to the landscape. Miller (2008) maintains that these abrupt changes that transformed tourism landscapes into disaster landscapes and hazardscapes following Hurricane Katrina, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Australian wildfires in 2019-2020. In the aforementioned cases, the level of devastation to the local environment, sense of safety and security and perceptions of a place are almost too much to comprehend for tourists and travelers.…”

“…Disasters often prompt people to reevaluate their positions in society and their places in history. Furthermore, Ogasawara (1999, p. 9;Miller, 2008) contends "living with nature and its accompanying dangers produces the continuous remembrance and reinterpretation [. .…”

“…of the world around them. The new realities shape life and redefine coexistence with the landscape so much so "that a natural disaster can shake the foundations of traditional assumptions and ideas and create alternative perspectives" (Ogasawara, 1999, p. 9;Miller, 2008).…”