An empirical evaluation of the determinants of tourist's hurricane evacuation decision making

Tourists are vulnerable in the event of a crisis. This article is focused on examining aspects of tourists that potentially influence whether or not they evacuate in the event of a hurricane. In general the results of this study suggest that individual characteristics (risk belief, connectedness, knowledge, and past experience with hurricanes), travel related variables and the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists influence their decision regarding whether or not to evacuate in the event of a hurricane, with tourists who are not local showing higher risk beliefs regarding hurricanes, with low connectedness and knowledge about hurricanes, without past experience with hurricane impacts, traveling with a larger party, traveling with children, traveling for the first time to the destination, traveling by plane and personal vehicle, older age groups, female, with an annual income more than $125,000 are more likely to evacuate. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.