Title: Fortune or misfortune: threats and opportunities for the development of the tourism industry in the heavily attacked area in '5.12' earthquake of China

Authors: Yan Shen; Shiming Li; Ke Jiang; Ping Hu

Addresses: School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, D-610054 Cheng Du, China. ' School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, D-610054 Cheng Du, China. ' School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, D-610054 Cheng Du, China. ' School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, D-610054 Cheng Du, China

Abstract: The '5.12' earthquake of China has caused extremely serious damage to the tourism industry in the earthquake area in Sichuan including Longmenshan geological fault zone. Tourism infrastructure and tourism attractions are all destroyed and visitors' confidence is heavily hurt; on the other hand, high frequency and high intensity reports from medias over the world about disaster and disaster relief has greatly improved the area's visibility, therefore, the tourism infrastructure can get improvements, and the tourist location greatly ascend. Threats and opportunities for the tourism industry in ecological reconstruction regions of Longmenshan geological fault zone are exist with each other. In this paper, we argue that restoration and reconstruction of tourism industry in Longmenshan geological fault zone after the disaster should be committed to such measures: enhancing the confidence of tourists, upgrading tourism products and industries, and overall planning the development of the tourism industry outside the region.

Keywords: Wenchuan; earthquakes; law; eco-redevelopment areas; China; break pane effect; criminology; disaster economics; natural disasters; threats; opportunities; Sichuan; Longmenshan; geological faults; tourism infrastructure; tourism attractions; visitor confidence; high frequency reports; high intensity reports; media coverage; disaster relief; publicity; ecological reconstruction; ecology; tourist confidence; product upgrading; planning; regions; regional development; tourism development; anthropology; tourist industry; tourists.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2012.046093

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2012 Vol.2 No.1, pp.16 - 33

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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