Death in paradise: tourist fatalities in the tsunami disaster in Thailand1

This is the fourth of a series of articles on the sociological aspects of the 2004 tsunami disaster in Thailand (see Cohen, 2005, 2007, in press). Thanks are due to Dr. Paul Yves Wery (“Wana”) and Emanuel Marx for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Abstract

The topic of death of tourists on their trip has not been treated in tourism studies. This article departs from the prevailing approach to death in contemporary thanatological studies and focuses upon the specific issue involved in tourist death. It conceives the common characteristics of tourist deaths and raises some basic sociological questions regarding the treatment of tourist fatalities in a major disaster. It examines those questions in a case study of the retrieval and identification of dead tourists in the tsunami disaster in southern Thailand.

Keywords:

• coastal tourism
• life-cycle
• management
• reciprocal altruism
• safety
• tsunami

Notes

This is the fourth of a series of articles on the sociological aspects of the 2004 tsunami disaster in Thailand (see Cohen, 2005, 2007, in press). Thanks are due to Dr. Paul Yves Wery (“Wana”) and Emanuel Marx for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.