Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Disaster tourism is the circulation of people to disaster-affected places to visually consume trauma, devastation, and catastrophe. Examples of disaster tourism include the use of guided tours to concentration camps in Germany, the World Trade Center in New York City, flooded neighborhoods in New Orleans, and war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Disaster tourism also implies intent and purpose on the part of the traveling consumer. The regular tourist travels to disaster sites for the purpose of learning and gaining knowledge and information. A disaster tourist, in contrast, is seeking some sort of emotional thrill or “pleasure” and is not interested in learning, education, or gaining wisdom per se . The growing interest in disaster tourism reflects several trends, including the increasing vulnerability of human settlements to natural disasters, the spreading worldwide financial crisis, and the growth of the tourism disaster management and planning fields ( Ritchie 2008 ). The devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans opened up a fertile field of disaster tourism in the city as bus tours sprouted soon after the disaster to offer guided tours of flooded neighborhoods to curious tourists. The global economic crisis has spawned the growth of disaster tourism in places like Ireland as unemployed workers have started running tours of idle factories for sightseers. Finally, the omnipresent ... log in or subscribe to read full text