Disaster recovery as disorientation and reorientation

ABSTRACT

As research on disasters in the tourism context matures, a more holistic understanding of how businesses and communities can recover is needed. Using the disorientation and reorientation framework, this study explores recovery as a place-based process. The perceptions and memories of key stakeholders of Binna Burra Lodge, which was affected by the 2019–2020 bushfires in Australia, are investigated and the analysis reveals two themes of disorientation and four of reorientation. It is proposed that various reorientation mechanisms can be deliberately activated to foster a smoother recovery process. Furthermore, this study shows that tourism-enabled social capital can assist disaster recovery in communities and that, through embracing traditional heritage, communities can not only deal with the loss but also prepare for future disasters.

KEYWORDS:

• Community
• disorientation and reorientation framework
• Binna Burra
• bushfire
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Queensland Government: [Grant Number QBCCFFGPS40].

Notes on contributors

Margarida Abreu Novais

Margarida Abreu Novais is a Lecturer at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management at Griffith University, Australia. Her main areas of research include destination competitiveness, tourism spatiotemporal behaviour and experiential learning in tourism and hospitality education.

Alexandra Coghlan

Alexandra Coghlan is an Associate Professor in tourism and events in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Her research interests are sustainable tourism, consumer psychology and its links to prosocial and environmental behaviour, particularly within an active travel, and nature-based tourism.

Karine Dupré

Karine Dupré (PhD) is a registered architect and urban designer, member of the Planning Institute of Australia and an executive member of the Griffith Institute for Tourism. She has extensive experience in tourism planning, place-making, participation, heritage and feasibility studies. She specializes in regional development, specifically in Queensland and outback communities.

Sera Vada

Sera Vada is a Research Fellow at the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University. Her research and consulting interests include, positive psychology and tourist behavior studies, destination marketing and diversification of tourist markets, tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and tourism challenges in the Pacific. Sera also has over 10 years of industry experience and is passionate about evidence-based research which influences policies and contributes to enhancing individual well-being and improving the livelihood of communities in the Pacific.

Sarah Gardiner

Sarah Gardiner has a PhD in Marketing and over 25 years of experience in the tourism industry. She is an Associate Professor in Tourism and the Deputy Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University, Australia. Her research is published in leading tourism academic journals and she has written several book chapters on travel consumer behavior, travel trends, technology, experience design and innovation, with a particular interest in youth tourism. She regularly delivers presentations, consultancies and training for government and industry in these areas and is often asked to provide expert comments to media on tourism issues.

James C. R. Smart

James Smart is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment and Sciences at Griffith University, Queensland Australia. Jim is an environmental economist with expertise in ecosystem service assessment, environmental-economic accounting, incentive-based approaches for managing water quality, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis and all forms of non-market valuation. He has led numerous projects in environmental economics for both public and private sector clients.

Guy Castley

Guy Castley is a multidisciplinary ecologist with experience spans more than 25 years as a field ecologist and researcher interested in protected area and threatened species management, wildlife management, conservation biology, urban ecology, citizen science and conservation tourism. Dr Castley's applied research focuses on the transdisciplinary nature of contemporary conservation practice where he explores the interactions between species and their socio-ecological environment across multiple scales to address novel mechanisms for conservation action.