With an economy, heavily reliant on tourism, after Katrina, New
Orleans naturally became a hotspot for disaster tourism. As early as 2006, tour
buses began shuttling visitors across the city mostly to areas surrounding
levee breaches. The most popular destination of these buses was the Ninth Ward,
a predominantly black district, which experienced the most devastating flooding
in the city. Now, an area that already faced systematic injustice before
Katrina faced the insensitive capitalization of its suffering after Katrina.
Even though these tours claimed to give tourists a “local’s
perspective,” they often failed to do so, giving incorrect or only partial accounts
that failed to grasp the truth of the hardships from Katrina, especially in
that area. Furthermore, these tours physically interfered with much-needed
relief efforts, and even though these companies claimed that their tours helped
bring in more volunteers and donations, these efforts lack empirical evidence.
Today, the bus tours are banned in the Ninth Ward, but they
continue elsewhere, mostly traveling to public spaces, rather than residential
streets. After all, with Katrina being thirteen years ago, people are more
accepting of these tours, believing that they help keep the memory of Katrina
alive by giving people a more interactive experience but not in the same
intrusive way as before. Plus, people see an economic benefit in these tours,
for immediately after Katrina, New Orleans’s tourism rate dropped
significantly, but these tour buses helped stimulate the tourism economy then
and even today.
Is there a way for bus tours of this nature to be ethical? Is
it about timing, or are there better alternatives? Looking at disaster tourism
holistically, since it is not limited to just bus tours nor to just New
Orleans, but to other areas like Joplin or even Pompeii, does it teeter between
being ethical or unethical, or is it always unethical? Lastly, how might disaster
tourism fit into the themes of remembering disaster in Ward’s and/or Hurston’s works?
The profitability of disaster tourism is what makes the discussion surrounding its ethics so contentious. As stated in the article, it can be a boon to the communities it impacts. While disaster tourism can carry the connotations of environmental discrimination and disrespect for the victims of disaster, which is regrettable, the money collected from it can be used to help communities rebuild in a tangible way. So long as special care is taken to commemorate the victims of disaster, disaster tourism can be utilized as an opportunity to raise awareness of the effects of disaster while helping the people impacted by said disasters. Hurston and Ward detail disaster in their respective books as being devastating to communities, so it would be interesting to discover what their opinions would be regarding disaster tourism.
ReplyDeleteI believe that ethical disaster tourism would depend on timing. As the article states, it is "distasteful" for buses to tour areas of the city directly after the hurricane. These areas were affected most by the disaster, and the residents of these areas deserve time to grieve and rebuild without being exploited for profit. I believe that disaster tourism could be effective years after the disaster. This would allow for the stories of those effected to be remembered and for people to learn from the tragedies of natural disaster. Curry discusses how disaster tourism, “approached in the right way, is the idea of trying to understand the world.” I think that timely disaster tourism would serve as a way to remember the experiences of all who endured natural disaster, like Hurston and Ward called for within their texts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I began reading this I immediately thought of Pompeii. The difference is that was almost 2000 years ago–no one alive today lived it, and though I don't know for sure, I wouldn't think many, if any, people can even trace their ancestors back to it. Tourism in Pompeii is acceptable to me because none of those people are rebuilding or still struggling. Going around the 9th Ward and other parts of New Orleans, particularly soon after Katrina, is making a spectacle out of other people's pain and the devastation afflicted upon them.
ReplyDeleteI believe that touring disaster sites is an inhumane way of inserting yourself in the situation to make yourself feel as if you are a savior. It feeds the privileged people narrations that do not involve the words of those inflicted, and often time makes these people leave feeling better about themselves, as though they did something beneficial. Not to mention, it turns the victims of these disasters into zoo animals, to ogle at and pass comments because they are just another portion of this exhibit. Bus tours like this are the epitome of white saviorism. For a fleeting thirty minutes, they are seeing the situation of these people (yet watching from plush chairs, and air conditioning), and once that time is up they return back to their lives. If they did not like what they saw, they do not have to think about it again. They can choose to push those memories from their minds, while the people of the Ninth Ward continue struggling. Sitting on a bus and watching these afflicted people, does nothing for them. The watchers may make donations, but they gained no knowledge past what they could get from the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, and this has already been done, a traveling art exhibit with pictures of the devastation, accompanied with stories by the people who's belongings are pictured is a much better method. This method involves the people of the Ninth Ward's consent to be looked at, but also their chance to be heard. Not to mention, galleries reach more affluent members of society.
The only way for bus tours like this to be "ethical" is for the community itself to come to a total consensus on its existence and for the community to be benefiting directly from ALL of the resulting proceeds. But even in this situation, we have to consider the injustice of any such community being forced into objectifying themselves and their hardship just to keep on subsisting when the American government could have substantially alleviated the hurricane's damage early on or invested more in these communities' infrastructure before the storm. There can be no totally ethical poverty tourism, even economically, because there is no reason for a community to be forced to do something so uncomfortable/dehumanizing to gain money for construction when Jeff Bezos makes $230,000 a minute.
ReplyDeleteGood alternatives to offering tours would be to include Hurricane Katrina and similar disasters in history curriculum for middle and high school students throughout the United States. In this curriculum, the history should be taught as accurately and thoughtfully as possible with books like Salvage the Bones and articles which cover how some communities have been and still are ignored by those with political power. Although seeing the damage may have the benefit of drawing more emotional responses, these bus tours rarely seem interested in drawing constructive results. It's perfectly possible to sympathize with people through books, documentaries, and interviews.
Disaster tourism tends to be disproportionately present within poor communities because people living there do not have the resources to fix their neighborhood. Such communities are similar to those written about in Salvage the Bones and Their Eyes Were Watching God. In both of these books, it is clear that whiteness and just a bit of money is enough to prevent you from needing to sell your tragedy to keep it from being even more tragic.
So, I read this, and I had pretty much made up my mind about what I thought. Then I got to the part about Pompeii and I had to do some thinking, since Pompeii was obviously a disaster and definitely counts as disaster tourism. I think the tour companies are right, I think the tours can definitely help people remember about disasters, especially in a world as fast-paced as today. Additionally, they do bring money to the area, which helps the local economy recover. However, I am completely against the idea that the tours can happen whenever, wherever. The fact that the tours were getting in the way of relief efforts is completely unacceptable and should be regulated or outlawed.
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