Building destination resilience in the tourism disaster management process from the past experiences: The case of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake in Japan

This exploratory research reports the perception of local tourism stakeholders towards the distinctive contribution of tourism to the disaster management process and the destination resilience across the pre-to-post period of the September 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake in Japan through a series of in-depth interviews with 15key informants in summer 2019. The qualitative content analysis identifies, firstly, the multi-functionality of tourism resources, spaces and industries for disaster preparation. Secondly, it points out that information and communication barriers are the major difficulties to be tackled, especially in a complicated situation involving different people and problems during prodromal and emergency phases. The study reveals that post-disaster recovery may lead to new product creation, image improvement, local knowledge enrichment, people-to-people and people-to-place connections, which facilitate sustainable tourism development with long-term vision and strategy. The research concludes that the strengthened destination resilience must be achieved through an effective collaboration among local stakeholders including public sector, private sector and other non-governmental or community-based organizations.