This study focuses on the risks that tourists would face during a tsunami on the island of Stromboli and discusses how to best inform and prepare them. Tsunamis affect coastal regions, where many of these are leisure destinations for tourists who often don’t have adequate knowledge of the region's risks. Due to their proximity to the affected areas, near-source or local tsunamis usually allow for a limited warning time, posing great challenges to the planning of effective risk mitigation action. Furthermore, tourist populations have a particular significance in studies on risk perception, since their needs intersect with those of the local population and must be taken into account. To gather key knowledge for developing robust risk communication strategies, a survey (n = 699) was conducted between July and October 2023 to assess tourists' risk perception and preparedness. The findings indicate that tourists often misdescribe tsunamis, leading to underestimation of the security threats posed by smaller events and revealing shortcomings in current communication approaches. Given the tourism industry practices on the island, effective communication strategies for tourists should prioritize providing comprehensive information within the first 24 h of their arrival. Furthermore, given the high percentage of tourists who visit the island for a few hours and within certain time slots, we invite the authorities to provide this information before disembarking on the island.

Living in the shadow of ‘Iddu’, the Stromboli volcano, requires a unique cultural adaptation. This study explores the risk perception of the permanent residents of Stromboli Island (Italy), a complex multi-hazard environment where persistent volcanic activity coexists with tsunami threats. Adopting a qualitative design based on 17 semi-structured interviews and focus groups (May 2024), we analysed residents’ narratives through the Cultural Theory of Risk. The findings reveal a hybrid risk culture: a dominant individualistic orientation (37%), driven by self-reliance, is balanced by a strong egalitarian ethos (33%) rooted in community solidarity. The analysis highlights three critical dynamics: (1) the normalization of volcanic risk versus the fear of rare tsunami events; (2) a ‘Trust Gap’ between the community’s horizontal preparedness strategies and the institutions’ vertical communication protocols; and (3) an ‘Economic Filter’ imposed by tourism, which creates a cognitive dissonance where risk is privately acknowledged but publicly downplayed. The study concludes that effective Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) cannot rely solely on top-down technology but must integrate local knowledge and participatory approaches to bridge the distance between scientific monitoring and community experience.