Tourism business plays an important role in developing a region’s economy. Most of the operators are small businesses and are highly vulnerable to disaster. On top of bearing the direct loss such as personal asset damages, impacted and adjacent communities are concerned of the possibility of losing their jobs and future incomes due to business interruption between the primary and secondary industries. The government’s receipts of tax revenue would be disrupted as well. Despite recognition of indirect losses, the disaster literature’s focus had been on estimating the direct damages to local residents. Literature that studied impacts on the business community tended to focus on those that originated from the disruption in the economic system – such as economic recession rather than environmental disaster. Compared to direct losses, indirect losses are more difficult to estimate because of the complex task in obtaining relevant data to measure the multiplier impact, especially in smaller regions. This study extended the literature by highlighting a way to measure the indirect effects of natural disasters on the tourism and secondary industries and its local and adjoining communities. This study hopefully could contribute to a better understanding – by tourism industry analysts as well as public officials – of the trail of economic effects and its implications of carrying or not to carry-out restoration work
