Natural hazard risk awareness, perception and preparedness: A case study of Chinese visitors to the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master at Lincoln University

Abstract

In New Zealand, a destination prone to natural hazards, it is inevitable that dangerous natural hazard events will occur; previous studies have shown that risk communication can increase tourists’ natural hazard preparedness, which can reduce their vulnerabilities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese tourists were New Zealand’s second-largest visitor market. This thesis investigates their risk perceptions and awareness of natural hazards and their preparedness behaviour before and during travel to the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand. The study combines online surveys (n = 60) of Chinese visitors who visited New Zealand between 1 January 2018 and 28 February 2019, and in-depth interviews with local tourist service providers and other key stakeholders (local key informants, n = 13) in order to provide an in-depth understanding of these issues at the level of this specific destination: the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand. Secondary sources, including tourism supply-side risk communication strategies relevant to Chinese international tourists, are analysed alongside the interviews. The results show that while Chinese tourists perceived themselves as having sufficient hazard awareness, risk perception and preparedness; open-ended survey questions and key informant interviews indicate that Chinese tourists only have a limited knowledge about natural hazards and the required natural hazard preparations. During their trip, Chinese tourists self-evaluated levels of hazard awareness and risk perception increased significantly, but their hazard preparedness was not influenced by this, emphasising the importance of pre-trip communication to allow for an increase both in hazard awareness and risk perception and an opportunity to increase their preparedness levels. Furthermore, a number of possible communication gaps between different parts of the tourism sector and between the tourism sector and the emergency sector were also identified. Collectively, these potential risk communication gaps could influence Chinese tourists’ hazard awareness, risk perception and future preparations, which could be improved to potentially increase Chinese tourists’ safety. The social cognitive model of disaster preparedness was used as a theoretical foundation for this research. Although the survey sample size was not large enough to obtain statistically significant results but has shown a potential to model tourists’ natural hazard preparations. The findings of this study provide a foundation from which to inform discussion about the implications for future destination preparedness and planning for natural hazard events, including the need for risk communication and preparedness for an important market segment: the Chinese tourist.