Disaster responses within the tourist industry.

Bibliography: p. 15-16

Reflecting a series of converging international trends, the tourist industry will continue to experience rapid growth well into the next century. With such growth, much of which will occur in higher risk areas, the industry represents a vulnerability of catastrophic potential. Heretofore only a few researchers have examined this matter although specialized literature reviews have underscored this void in the knowledge base that has accumulated during the past forty years. In sharp contrast, many other areas of disaster response and recovery reflect significant bodies of theoretically informed empirical research. This paper presents a summary of the major findings and conclusions from the first empirical exploration of one aspect of this larger research agenda - evacuation behavior among tourist business executives. Five basic questions structure the analysis: 1) What is the extent of disaster evacuation planning? 2) What factors account for the variations in this planning; 3) What behavioral patterns occur during actual evacuations? 4) What factors account for these pattern variations? 5) What are the policy implications?