When a subduction-zone earthquake, such as the Nankai Trough Earthquake, occurred and
tsunami arrival time is limited in coastal tourism areas, all the people, including residents,
tourists, and tourism workers, must immediately evacuate any safety zones. In the emergency
state, tourism workers could play vital roles in supporting tourists' evacuations. This study
explores the relationships among tourism workers' perceptions of supporting tourists including
perceptions of the issues, perceived behavioral control, responsibility perceptions, and behavioral
intention during the emergency period following the Nankai Trough Earthquake. Respondents'
attributes and risk perceptions of seismic ground motions and tsunami of the Nankai Trough
Earthquake are also identified, and differences of perceptions of supporting tourists' evacuations
in these items are analyzed. The research site is Shirarahama area in Shirahama Town, Wakayama,
Japan which is a famous tourist and tsunami-prone area. A questionnaire survey targeting
tourism workers was conducted in the estimated tsunami inundation zone of the Nankai Trough
Earthquake. In the analysis results, the perception of issues in information communication with
tourists was an essential factor for decreasing perceived behavioral control. Results also
indicated that responsibility perceptions for supporting tourists are largely affected by perceived
behavioral control for assisting the evacuations of vulnerable people.
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