Resiliency in tourism transportation: Case studies of Japanese railway companies preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Since 2011, Japan's inbound tourism continues to grow at an exponential pace. The increasing number of foreign visitors into the country will expose more people to the risk of natural hazards. As a result, in 2018 the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) started urging rail operators to consider planning for tourism safety in the event of an earthquake and tsunami. Despite this, reports indicate that rail operators continue to experience difficulties in developing and adopting disaster counter-measures for tourists. In the present research the authors explored the obstacles that rail companies face, by interviewing ten rail companies throughout Japan. By utilizing a framework that examined key variables that can contribute to improved railway tourism resiliency, the authors were able to identify areas where rail operators appear to be reasonably well prepared for a disaster event, and others were their current state of preparedness appears limited. Finally, from the shared experiences of the companies the authors identified eight areas that can help to strengthen resiliency based, and make some other recommendations of their own.