Occurrence mechanism and coping paths of accidents of highly aggregated tourist crowds based on system dynamics

PLoS One. 2019 Sep 17;14(9):e0222389. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222389. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

The safety of highly aggregated tourist crowds is a challenging and important issue. This paper not only provided a comprehensive analysis of the accidents of highly aggregated tourist crowds but also determined the occurrence mechanism and coping paths. Based on the analysis of multiple cases, we found that the variable status of highly aggregated tourist crowds was the result of the interaction of three main elements: multisource pressure, state mutations and management responses. A series of factors interact and result in accidents, and the lack of a management response or a low-quality management response is the root cause of such accidents. A high-quality management response is a basic safety precaution for highly aggregated tourist crowds. Therefore, forming a virtuous circle of multisource pressure, state mutations and management responses is an effective path for coping with accidents.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidents / statistics & numerical data*
  • Adaptation, Psychological / physiology
  • Crowding
  • Humans

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Youth Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (no. 19YJC790175) to JY. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.