The Muslim Tourist Gaze and Disaster Tourism

－The Concepts of Calamity and Divine Wisdom in Tsunami Tourism in Aceh, Indonesia－

Abstract

This paper examines the Muslim tourist gaze at a disaster tourism destination in Aceh, Indonesia, which the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami once severely destroyed. In particular, I focus on the Islamic concept of hikmah or divine wisdom, which appears as something religiously good in a calamity, and show Muslim tourists find out various embodiments of wisdom, such as peace, economic development, and piety, in the destination. They even extend the tourist gaze to their inner selves. The tourist gaze is culturally shaped in tourists’ daily life while their gaze is formed and reformed through their discourses with what they perceive and experience in the destination.