Tourism workers' perceptions of supporting tourists’ evacuation in emergency situations

Abstract

Building emergency response systems for tsunamis is a common issue in tsunami prone areas. In these coastal regions, there are many tourist areas as well as residential areas. During the emergency state after an undersea earthquake and tsunami warning issued, tourism workers play a crucial role for tourists to evacuate to safety zones. This study explores tourism workers' perceptions of earthquake and tsunami risks and supporting tourists in the emergency stage following a massive earthquake. To analyze tourism workers' perceptions, we identify constructs of risk perceptions and supporting tourists. Differences in the perceptions among attributes are also illustrated in the analysis. To depict relationships among constructs and attributes, structural equation modeling was applied. The research site is Shirarahama area in Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan which is a famous tourist and tsunami prone area. The target was tourism workers working in the estimated tsunami inundation area. The number of distributed questionnaires was 346, and the number of valid responses was 196 (56.6%). In the analysis result, the path from the latent variable of the perception of people's confusion to perceived behavioral control was statistically significant and negative. This result indicates that respondents who recognize tourists and other people in the area will be disrupted after a massive earthquake tend to recognize that they may be unable to implement necessary responses. Results also appeared that experience in the discussion of tsunami evacuation responses with colleagues and practical drills affected tourism workers' perceptions better than a seminar, paper material, or non-practical training. In tourist areas, it is essential to repeatedly implement practical drills assuming various situations after earthquakes and discuss and adjust the responses based on the necessary knowledge and accurate sense.