Tourism-related short-term migration for heat adaptation: Impacts of socio-economic-institutional, climatic, socio-interactive, emotional, and perceptive-behavioral-psychological factors and implications for responsible tourism development

Many cities have launched heat mitigation and adaptation action plans, but the progress and efficiency are far from expected outcomes. Many cities and citizens have been locked into heat-related consequences. To avoid heat-related illnesses, diseases, and deaths, many citizens prefer short-term migration to cool areas for heat relief. Prior studies have explored long-term migration and associated mechanisms in socio-economic dimensions, while short-term migration has not been explored, and the mechanism remains unclear. Furthermore, in alignment with short-term migration for heat relief, some local governments and communities (i.e., in Chongqing, China) promote the cool tourism industry to ensure sound infrastructure and guarantee migrants’ health, safety, and wellness, while relevant knowledge is scarce. Therefore, this study empirically investigated heat-related migration and associated mechanisms among 768 respondents in Chongqing, where its citizens could potentially travel towards cool, mountainous areas for adaptation during extreme heat periods. In particular, the mechanisms were explored in socio-economic-institutional, social-interactive, emotional, climatic, perceptive-behavioral-psychological aspects. The results indicated that urban heat in Chongqing reached a severe level, and more than 50% of the respondents’ daily functioning were severely affected. More than 40% of the respondents preferred migration; among them, more than 75% migrated within the province and 55% preferred migrating to other provinces. Regarding the mechanism, settlement, health, heat-related impacts, perceived severity, emotion, and risk knowledge were not significant drivers of migration decisions, whereas gender, age, education, income, job, information availability, adaptation awareness, and adaptation knowledge were significant drivers. Income and job flexibility were the key drivers of financial and time support. Typically, the more flexible the jobs, the more likely to migrate, and the farther the respondents could migrate. Accordingly, implications for responsible tourism were delineated. Overall, this study advances the knowledge on short-term migration for heat adaptation and responsible tourism development.