Over a long time, there have been witnessed various disasters that occur beyond human control. The natural disaster tends to take place any time of the year regardless of whether tourism is at its peak or not (Ritchie et al. 15). Therefore, it happens that at times the natural disasters become one of the most challenging situations people encounter at diverse economic regimes.
In most countries, a natural disaster has led to the loss of lives of many people including the tourists. Moreover, it is evident that natural disaster does not choose the place to occur, and hence it is possible for it to take place in any given region and time. Therefore, the natural disaster is an issue that depends on probability (Ritchie et al. 15). When it occurs, it does not give a warning, and that is the reason as to why it tends to kill many people as well as destroying various properties in a short period.
The various disasters commonly encountered at various situations include the floods that occur due to heavy rains on flat land, the earthquakes that are famous for causing the destruction of buildings and bridges in most parts of the world.Additionally, it involved the issues related to climate change like global warming, the extreme temperature conditions that lead to the death of many people when it occurs, and many other mental torturing occurrences common in the life (Ritchie et al. 17).
Therefore, natural disaster comes in diverse forms. Additionally, the natural disaster has various effects on human lives and activities, as well as the valuable properties that are essential in human as well as animal living (Ritchie et al. 17). Some of the effects include death, fractures of the body parts for example during the fall of buildings in an occurrence of an earthquake, drowning in water during floods, displacement of the people, as well as the destruction of properties like buildings (Ritchie et al. 23). Therefore, it is evident that natural disasters lead to various disturbances to the human race as well as the property. Therefore, tourism will be experience adverse effects in case of the occurrence of a natural disaster.
In relation to the Hurricane Katrina incident that took place in the United States on August 29, 2005, the storm fell with the three categories rating based on Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale (Irish et al. 640). The calamity sustained winds of between 100 and 140 miles per hour, stretching 400 miles across the region. In particular, the storm led to various significant damages and the aftermath was quite catastrophic.
Noteworthy is that, there was quite a disastrous flooding with most of the people charged by the federal government delayed in responding to the needs of the victims of the storm (Irish et al. 640). There was a massive displacement of people in Alabama, Mississippi, as well as Louisiana. Based on the expert conclusions, the damages amounted to at least $ 100 billion.
In that connection, the tourism sector faced a decrease in tourist turn out because people feared the recurrence of the incident, and they diverted to safer regions and other parts of the world. As a result, there was a significant drop in the number of tourists for not less than one year (Irish et al. 649). However, there were many people who came to witness the damages, and most of them were domestic tourists, though they were few.
Finally, the disaster affected the Lew Orleans, and it led to various challenges in the region. IN particular, the recovery from the disaster took quite a long time. It was the most adverse disaster in the United States history (Downey 53). The recovery process followed a systematic step. The businesses came back to existence, and most of the displaced African-Americans returned to the region. However, most of them failed to return up to today. Therefore, based on the sentiment of one of the businessmen in the city, known as Jimmy Reiss, there was a perpetual recovery in a totally different way, with regards to demographic recovery, geographical as well as political recovery of the region (Downey 55). Therefore, a natural disaster is dangerous and affects tourism in a significant way.
Works Cited
Downey, Davia Cox. "Disaster recovery in Black and White: A comparison of New Orleans and Gulfport." The American Review of Public Administration 46.1 (2016): 51-74.
Irish, Jennifer L., et al. "Simulations of Hurricane Katrina (2005) under sea level and climate conditions for 1900." Climatic change 122.4 (2014): 635-649.
Ritchie, Brent W., et al. "Understanding the effects of a tourism crisis: the impact of the BP oil spill on regional lodging demand." Journal of Travel Research 53.1 (2014): 12-25.
