Tourist Visitation Impacts of the Accident at Three Mile Island

by Jeffery J. Himmelberger, Clark Univ, Worcester, United States,
Yelena A. Ogneva-Himmelberger, Clark Univ, Worcester, United States,
Mike L. Baughman, Clark Univ, Worcester, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1993

Abstract:

This paper analyzes tourist impacts of the March 27, 1979, accident at Three Mile Island. A review of the literature, supplemented with recollections from Pennsylvanian public officials, are used to specify a conventional tourism impact model which holds that the depressed 1979 summer tourism season was more influenced by gasoline shortages and possibly other confounding variables (such as rainy local weather conditions and a polio outbreak) than by the nuclear accident. Regression analyses using monthly visitation data for Hershey Chocolate World, Gettysburg National Park, The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitor Bureau, and several state parks as dependent variables provide support for this model. Potential tourism implications of an accident at Yucca Mountain are briefly discussed in light of our findings.

Subject Headings: Tourism | Accidents | Power plants | Nuclear power | Islands | Data analysis | Regression analysis

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