Tourism and Disasters: Impact of disaster events on tourism development in Indonesia 1998–2016 and structural approach policy responses

Abstract

Over the last two decades, disaster events have affected tourist destinations in many countries around the world. Although disasters have attracted considerable attention in academia, little attention has been paid to the impacts of recurring disasters on the multiyear performance of the tourism industry in a specific country. This paper discusses the relationship between the performance of the tourism industry and disaster events and examines the spillover effects of disasters on the tourism sector in Indonesia. It also highlights the Indonesian policy responses in tourism following multiple disasters. The paper analyses the multiyear (1998-2016) performance of the tourism industry using the variables number of inbound tourists, national/regional income from tourism, and hotel room occupancy rates. Secondary data were collected from several sources, including legal documents, Indonesia’s tourism statistics, media outlets and newspapers articles. The results show that during the past 18 years, disasters have affected the performance of the tourism industry differently in terms of the scale of destruction, the location of disasters and the type of disasters (human vs. nature induced). The spillover effect between provinces has also been captured from the data. Overall, this paper argues that in dealing with multiple disasters over long periods of time, the continuation of regular tourism activities needs a structural approach in terms of policy responses.