The Interaction of Tourism and Cyclone Activity In East Asia: Sustainability and Disasters

Abstract

This research investigated the relationship between cyclone activity and tourism in the Northeast Asian and Southeast Asian regions. A dataset on the damage impact of cyclones was constructed based on the Tropical Cyclone Best Track tables and the Annual Tropical Cyclone Reports provided by the United States National Climatic Data Center for the period 1995–2014. A damage index was based on the wind speed when each cyclone went through a region and the distance of the region to the largest city in the vicinity. The results showed that there were feedback effects between these cyclones and unsustainable tourism where cyclone damage reduced the number of tourist arrivals and some unsustainable activities by the tourism industry increased the cyclone damage. We then examined the disparities among the affected countries in East Asia. The results showed that that except for Philippines, which endured much more cyclone damage than that aggregate level, the other countries were either at or below the average level of damage.