City strategies for disaster communications in Asia: Reaching Out to International Tourists

In order to reduce risks for international tourists during and after a disaster, local governments must adopt an integrative, multilingual communication strategy. However, creating effective communication tools and reaching a wide range of tourism sector actors can present financial and collaborative challenges. This research, conducted in the popular tourism destination cities of Kyoto, Japan and Hoi An, Vietnam, sought to identify disaster information perceptions of international tourists and the shortcomings of existing disaster communication strategies in the two cities. Research methods included tourist surveys, assessment workshops, and key informant interviews. Based on analysis of the data using the Laswell Communication Model, the researchers identified exclusion of vital tourism actors such as tour guides and small-scale lodging management from communication networks for Kyoto and a lack of multilingual tools and strategies in Hoi An as issues that could be addressed using existing resources, including local multilingual volunteers.