Does Indigenous tourism contribute to Indigenous resilience to disasters? A case study on Taiwan's highlands

Abstract

Climate change poses a real threat to Taiwan's Indigenous communities. Many disaster risk reduction or post-disaster reconstruction interventions are implemented in a top down way. The central question of this study is: to what extent does Indigenous tourism build the Indigenous resilience of Taiwan's Indigenous communities after Typhoon Morakot? The research was conducted using a mixed methods approach among three Indigenous Tsou communities. All three communities were severely impacted by typhoon Morakot in 2009. Involvement in Indigenous tourism contributed to better post-disaster recovery and resilience, but discrepancies between the communities and even among households within the communities were observed.