Exploring “disaster tourism” in New Orleans

Above: A view from the Lower Ninth Ward.

My latest Yahoo! News travel column debuted this week — and it tackles the issue of disaster tourism in the flood-damaged Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. “One year ago,” I write, “before the devastation of the 2005 hurricane season, the Lower Ninth Ward wouldn’t have registered the faintest blip on the New Orleans travel radar. After the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina, however, the Lower Ninth Ward suddenly transformed into a tourist attraction.”

Naturally, there are ethical issues to consider when sightseeing in a disaster zone:

On a certain level, seeking to combine a Mardi Gras sojourn with a foray into the flood-wracked streets of the Ninth Ward smacked of voyeurism and vulgarity — kind of like traveling to Dresden to celebrate Oktoberfest in 1946. After all, the ruined homes that litter the low-lying neighborhood aren’t tourist attractions — they are a sad testament to the pain and loss of the people who lived there.

Still, in an era of global mass media and secondhand experience, a tourist foray into the flood zone promised something that has become increasingly rare: a travel experience that is vividly, irrevocably authentic. […] Unlike the monuments built to commemorate them, disaster zones have a rawness that defies anything but a visceral interpretation of what happened there. Free of curators, ticket-takers, and media middlemen, the grim reality of places like the Lower Ninth Ward speaks for itself.

The full article, which examines the history of disaster tourism — and recounts my own journey to the Lower Ninth Ward — can be found online here.