Chapter 4 Community-based Tourism in Post-disaster Contexts: Recovery from 2016 Cyclone Winston in Fiji

Abstract

Abstract In critical tourism studies, tourism has often been accused as a detrimental activity for local communities. The objective of this chapter is to highlight that there is another way of understanding tourism, one that responds to a more emancipating approach. The authors argue that from a post-structuralist perspective certain types of ‘responsible tourism’ can exhibit characteristics that promote local economic sustainability and greater gender equality as well as contribute to disaster risk reduction and recovery. Through a review of the literature and empirical fieldwork in the Fiji Islands, the authors examine the capacity of community-based tourism (CBT) to serve as a tool for locally led development and effective disaster risk reduction and recovery. The authors also explore whether CBT can open new spaces for women’s perspectives to be included in governance of local development and disaster risk management, challenging the gendered power structures within the community.