Post-Disaster Tourist Behavior: Motivation and Intention

Focusing on the popular Chinese tourist destination of Sichuan in the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, this study attempts to explore domestic tourists' motivations and intentions to visit a post-disaster destination. Based on a questionnaire survey, this study identifies six push factors and four pull factors of travel motivation. The results of linear regression analysis reveal that different push and pull factors drive people to visit Sichuan for leisure and dark tourism purposes. In the meanwhile, this study reveals the potential of joint consumption of both leisure and dark tourism. In terms of managerial implications, the findings suggest that dark tourism can be used as another vehicle to restore tourism to Sichuan, and post-disaster sites in general.