International Academic Conference on Tourism (INTACT)

Why do we need to set up series on INTACT?

Tourism flows are subject to disruption caused by various natural disaster events. The events may occur in the destination itself, in its competing destinations, origin markets, or they may be remote from either. The consequences may be either mild, relatively short term or have catastrophic impacts on existing industry systems. Major disruptions, also referred to as shocks, are felt in both origin and destination areas, affect both the public and private sectors and disrupt the travel plan of intending travelers. The data and empirical analyses about coexistence between tourism and disasters remain limited, which needs to be empirically understood.

Currently, tourism academics have become increasingly active in researching and publishing in the area of tourism and disaster. As the frequency of disaster events increases, the demand for recommendation in many international tourism destinations is also increasing. It is, therefore, urgently needed to have a forum to share the knowledge and expertise. The forum proposed to combat the issues is the International Academic Conference on Tourism (INTACT 2014). This conference will explore issues dealing with achieving environmental, social and economic sustainability of tourism alongside the governance mechanisms needed to support sustainable tourism especially in disaster areas.

This conference aims to add to this debate by stimulating discussion and exchange of ideas between tourism experts, tourism industry practitioners, researchers, and lecturers, undergraduate and postgraduate students from all tourism-related fields. It will also discuss how new resources ought to be employed to avoid the errors committed in the past and propose remedial actions when required. The meeting will also focus on empirical work and case studies from around the world, which can offer new insights and best practical guidance.

Why should CTS-UGM be the first to manage?

Center for Tourism Studies (CTS) is one of the institutions under Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM is one of the biggest universities in Indonesia). Founded on July 23, 1994, the Center for Tourism Studies focuses on developing research competence in the field of tourism. CTS also has a lot of experiences in international events, such as international seminar and/or international conferences and research activities in collaboration with other institutions abroad. CTS-UGM is a nonprofit organization. Its activities include research and development of tourism aspects in developing countries. Besides supporting the policy of the university to become a research university, CTS-UGM also develops a research methodology which is able to present both a new concept and policy base in tourism development either in the local, national or international scope.

The Importance of Tourism and Disaster Theme

The theme of the INTACT is Tourism Disaster, whose rational is to respond to the large number of disaster events in the world nowadays. The situation of disasters in many countries is overwhelming the local capacity, and necessitating a request to a national and international lever for external assistance. In addition, it may also cause great damage, destruction and human suffering. A number of disaster is reported to have damaged a lot of tourism destinations. A lot of disaster cases that occurred in the tourism destination have not been handled well. It certainly can generate bad impact of sustainability especially on tourism aspects. In response to this, the academic world should take a role in contributing the idea and insight about the issues. The conference is taking on disaster issues and the material that will be discussed is the academic papers addressing some topics in accordance with the theme of the conference.

OBJECTIVES

Sharing the methods, theories, concepts and results for some cases in managing tourism in disaster areas.

OUTPUT

Lessons-learned from any different cases and experiences of tourism management in disaster areas from all around the world.

OUTCOME

The most important outcome of the conference would be setting up some opportunities to do some more researches to develop tourism management concept in disaster areas and sustaining tourism both for the attraction and the tourists.