Jane SINGER, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Japan
Thi Kinh KIEU , The University of Danang, the University of Science and Education, Viet Nam
The expected rebound in global travel following the current pandemic lends urgency to the need for tourist destination cities in high disaster-risk countries in East and Southeast Asia to plan assistance for inbound travelers during natural disasters. This research examines how two tourism-dependent cities, Kyoto, Japan and Hoi An, Vietnam, communicate critical safety information to international tourists during and immediately after natural disasters to allow them to evacuate, secure their safety and basic needs and repatriate smoothly to their home countries. Surveys of 456 international tourists, augmented by interviews and focus groups with accommodation providers, local government and other tourism sector stakeholders revealed that in both cities few inbound tourists knew of local disaster risks or proper risk responses, and that final responsibility for international tourists rested with local lodgings. Disaster response training or instruction from the city was especially poor for the growing number of small-scale lodgings, which are often poorly staffed or integrated in neighborhood networks. Although Kyoto has developed a multilingual app and flyers for foreign tourists showing temporary evacuation sites and other critical information they have been poorly promoted. Yet, as workshops with local stakeholders revealed, using existing community networks can yield effective and inexpensive disaster communication strategies. For example, Kyoto’s city-wide neighborhood associations can collaborate with local government to create a database of trained multilingual volunteers in each neighborhood, and small-scale lodgings such as B&Bs can be included in the city’s disaster response training program. In Hoi An, which does not yet have a disaster response policy, the local government can promote provision of multilingual flyers, include disaster information on existing mobile tourist apps and recruit local student volunteers.
Mots clés : disaster communication|disaster response|international tourism|community resilience|risk perceptions
A104207JS