AUTHOR=Cui Aviva , Fountain Joanna , Espiner Stephen 

TITLE=Communicating natural hazard risks to Chinese visitors: a case study from New Zealand

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Tourism

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-tourism/articles/10.3389/frsut.2023.1192124

DOI=10.3389/frsut.2023.1192124

ISSN=2813-2815

ABSTRACT=Research has shown that tourists are vulnerable to natural hazards during their travels. For this reason, communicating potential natural hazard risks to tourists prior to, and during, their journeys plays an important role in helping visitors safely navigate the natural hazards they may encounter. Tourists have different levels of vulnerability, depending on a range of personal, cultural and experiential factors, so risk communication must be appropriately targetted to particular markets. This research investigates supply side stakeholders’ perceptions of the awareness of, and preparedness for, natural hazard risks amongst Chinese visitors to the West Coast of the South Island (Aotearoa New Zealand), and assesses the effectiveness of current risk communication processes and content for Chinese visitors. These issues are addressed through semi-structured interviews with representatives of government agencies and tourism businesses directly and/or indirectly involved in managing Chinese tourists’ experiences and risk communication in the region, and supplemented with documentary analysis of strategy documents, social media and website resources. Applying a mental models approach (MMA) to risk communication (MMARC) reveals that informants have relatively similar perspectives on Chinese tourists’ awareness of natural hazard risks, irrespective of the nature of their interaction with the Chinese market, however informants with direct contact with these tourists tend to have a more nuanced impression of their characteristics. There are also some differences between stakeholders in their views of levels of preparedness, and who should be responsible for risk communcation, and when and how that should be delivered. The paper concludes by considering the scope to improve risk communication content and processes, based on informant insights and documentary analysis.