Abstract

National parks are designated for environmental protection and recreation purposes, which have a close relationship with tourism development. Many national park authorities (NPAs) have recognized the need to establish a more market-driven, sustainable strategic approach to develope tourism therein. For NPs, tourism marketing can serve as a powerful tool to achieve the mandated missions of protecting ecosystem, providing recreation, and fostering social-economic development in local communities, especially in the postdisaster/crisis period. Taking China's Jiuzhaigou National Park (JNP) as an example, a secondary data analysis was conducted to explore the international tourist markets for JNP before and after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Some marketing recommendations were then put forward for JNP's tourism recovery and sustainable development