Consuming post-disaster destinations: The case of Sichuan, China

• Post-disaster destination consumption is explored through dark tourism theory.
• The findings move beyond the common approach to destination recovery.
• Newly formed dark attributes are of key importance to destination recovery.
• Exploring motives and travel intentions reveals new potential tourist segments.
• Most tourists seek joint consumption of leisure attractions and dark sites.

Addressing the call for a better understanding of tourist behavior in relation to post-disaster destinations, this study explores the motivations and intentions of potential domestic tourists (from non-hit areas) to visit Sichuan, China in the aftermath of an earthquake. Drawing on dark tourism theories, this study offers a more comprehensive insight into the consumption of post-disaster destinations, aiming to capture the impact of the changes to the destination’s attributes on tourist behavior. The findings move beyond the common approach to tourism recovery, which solely focuses on reviving the traditional “non-dark” products. This study reveals the importance of newly formed dark attributes that emerge from the disaster as another means to destination recovery, reflected in the emergence of new tourist segments.