Through a study which took place on Koh Phi Phi Island, Thailand between 2005 and 2011, concerning the influence of political economy and conceptualisations of sustainability upon post disaster reconstruction, the author attempts to fill the void expressed by numerous commentators who have highlighted a relative lack of academic attention directly addressing the influence of political economy on achieving sustainability in post-disaster reconstruction. In existing academic debates concerning the political economy of post-disaster reconstruction, there appears a trend towards ‘disaster capitalism’ (Klein, 2005: 3), ‘smash and grab capitalism’ (Harvey, 2007: 3 2) or ‘attempts to accumulate by dispossession’ (Saltman, 2007a: 57). This research observes however, that this did not occur on Phi Phi Island post Asian tsunami of December 2004. Despite claims of a ‘clean slate’ being offered by the tsunami in developmental terms, this research provides evidence and explanation of why this did not and would not exist on Phi Phi, a finding that may be applied to other destinations in a post-disaster context