From vulnerability to transformation: a framework for assessing the vulnerability and resilience of tourism destinations

Tourism is a key driver of global socio-economic progress. However, its sustainability is at risk from multiple shocks and hazards that threaten livelihoods. Surprisingly little is known about the complex drivers of destination vulnerability, leading to the creation and application of ineffective resilience-building solutions. The paper presents the Destination Sustainability Framework (DSF) designed to assess destination vulnerability and resilience, and support successful resilience-building initiatives. Holistic in nature, the DSF comprises: (1) the shock(s) or stressor(s); (2) the interconnected dimensions of vulnerability – exposure, sensitivity, and system adaptiveness; (3) the dynamic feedback loops that express the multiple outcomes of actions taken (or not); (4) the contextualised root causes that shape destinations and their characteristics; (5) the various spatial scales; and (6) multiple timeframes within which social-ecological change occurs. This innovative framework is significant because it's the first framework to chart the complex manifestation of vulnerability and resilience in tourism destinations. Further, it brings tourism sustainability research in line with wider debates on achieving sustainability within the dynamic coupled human–environment system, doing so through the inclusion of insights from contemporary systems approaches, including chaos–complexity theory, vulnerability approaches, sustainability science, resilience thinking, along with the geographies of scale, place and time.     

Resilience and sustainability: a complementary relationship? Towards a practical conceptual model for the sustainability–resilience nexus in tourism

“Sustainability” has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars, and volumes have been written about how to achieve this holy grail of the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism destinations are often promoted as the ethical choice for discerning travellers, with some marketers taking full advantage of the widely acknowledged ambiguities implicit in the term. More recently “resilience” has generated appeal in the academic tourism literature as a term that might capture core aspects of sustainability, while acknowledging the considerable influences that multiple contexts have on the capacity of communities to adapt and ultimately sustain their tourism enterprises. The resilience concept encompasses an inclusive and integrative “social ecological systems” approach which gives it a firm interdisciplinary underpinning in its application in tourism. While in a tourism context sustainability and resilience are kindred terms, relatively little scholarly effort has been committed to a critical treatment of these concepts. Addressing this deficiency, we present a conceptual model to discuss the relationship between sustainability and resilience in tourism. Drawing on examples from New Zealand's nature-based tourism sector, this conceptual paper explores the insights that a critical treatment of the sustainability–resilience nexus might offer both academics and practitioners in the field of tourism studies.     

When Castro seized the Hilton: Risk and crisis management lessons from the past

Studies on crisis management in tourism have made valuable contributions to the sector in terms of 'lessons learned', offering contextualisation, analysis and synthesis of factors that influenced the development of the crisis and the organisational or destination response. Very few, however, provide information on how tourism organisations attempt to manage risk proactively and how they manage a crisis reactively. Using information from multiple sources and archival material from Hilton Hotels, this study identifies associations between the company's actions in the 1950s before the Havana Hilton's nationalisation by Castro and modern-day principles and concepts of risk and crisis management. The chronicling of the organisation's proactive actions and reactive response to that crisis richly illustrates the contemporary concept of 'organisational resilience' in practice. Based on this analysis, the study proposes a five-stage resilience management framework for tourism organisations which distinguishes risk from crisis management and identifies specific activities within each stage.     

Examining the relationship between social capital and community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations

A thorough understanding of the influencing factors and mechanisms of community resilience in tourism destinations is vital not only for recovery after disasters but also for strengthening the adaptive capacity of community residents to manage sudden change. This study aims to investigate the roles of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital in enhancing community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations. Based on data derived from a survey of 691 residents of China's Dujiangyan scenic areas and Jiuzhai Valley National Park, this study used structural equation modeling to test the relationship between community residents' perceived social capital and resilience in tourism destinations. The findings suggest that the three types of social capital have significantly positive effects on community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations. In China's centralized political system, linking social capital is the most important type of social capital in community disaster recovery. An interaction effect between bonding, bridging, and linking social capital is found. This study's results help managers and community residents cultivate social capital, improve community resilience and maintain sustainable tourism development.     

The resilience of formal and informal tourism enterprises to disasters: reef tourism in Phuket,Thailand

This paper explores the resilience of vulnerable tourism sectors to disasters in a period of global change and interdependence. The coral reef tourism industry is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and economic and political shocks. The paper also explains why enterprise resilience is central to sustainable tourism management, for economic, socio-cultural and environmental reasons. It extends the concepts of ecological and social resilience to that of enterprise resilience. Using scenarios and interviews with key enterprise staff, the study contrasts the levels of resilience of formal and informal reef tourism enterprises, and the factors associated with the enterprise resilience in Phuket, Thailand, following the 2004 tsunami and the 2008 political crisis. Informal enterprises reported better financial condition in a crisis scenario and higher levels of social capital in the form of government, family and community support than formal enterprises. Formal and informal enterprises both enjoy high lifestyle benefits from reef tourism, which supports resilience. Most formal enterprises had part foreign ownership/management (61%); no informal enterprise had any foreign ownership or management. Management policies supporting reef tourism should consider local nuances and the importance of lifestyle benefits for both formal and informal enterprises, and take steps to enable enterprise flexibility and cost-cutting during crises.     

Hotels in contexts of uncertainty: Measuring organisational resilience

The tourism industry faces multiple changes (economic crises, climate change, technology innovation…). Because of this vulnerability, as evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the study of hotel resilience is a key issue for the survival and competitiveness of organisations and destinations. Therefore, this paper proposes a holistic model to measure organisational resilience. To that end, it aims to analyse the determinants of organisational resilience, i.e. predictors of resilience (strategy and change), and to assess how they contribute to hotel resilience and performance. Firstly, the hotel context in the Canary Islands is examined to identify the level of impact, frequency and predictability of each type of change. Secondly, scales development and validation were conducted. Finally, the proposed model is validated. Findings confirm that the strategy and change dimensions have a considerable effect on hotel resilience, which positively influences hotel performance. Discussion provides hotel managers with guidelines to improve organisational resilience and performance.     

Career resilience of the tourism and hospitality workforce in the COVID-19: The protection motivation theory perspective

By applying the protection motivation theory, the study aims to investigate factors influencing tourism and hospitality (T&H) workers' career resilience when faced with health-related risks at work during a pandemic. Data were collected from 495 part-time and full-time employees in the Vietnamese tourism and hospitality sector. The study found that workers' perceived vulnerability and perceived severity of the pandemic were positively associated with career resilience. Perceived severity was positively related to self-efficacy and response efficacy, while perceived vulnerability was positively associated with self-efficacy only. Both self-efficacy and response efficacy positively influenced career resilience through the mediating role of health risk preventative behavior. Theoretically, the study advances the stream of research in resilience in general and career resilience in particular among T&H workers when faced with a health-related crisis. Practical implications are provided with recommendations on how to facilitate career resilience among T&H employees working in the current high-risk environment.     

Environmental orientations and environmental behaviour: Perceptions of protected area tourism stakeholders

There are numerous studies in the academic literature which assert that environmental attitudes can influence the process of sustainable tourism in protected areas. To test this claim, this research was undertaken in Central Karakoram National Park, Pakistan. The purpose of the research was to examine the differences in environmental orientations of four stakeholder groups associated with protected area tourism and to determine the factors that might influence their intentions to engage in environmentally responsible behaviour. The New Ecological Paradigm scale was used to assess environmental orientations. In addition, interviews were conducted to examine the factors that impacted these orientations. The results show significant differences among the stakeholders' orientations towards the environment and multiple factors that influence stakeholders' intention to engage in environmental conservation and sustainable tourism, namely economic benefits, awareness and information, top down governance and resource use rights.     

Social-ecological dynamics and water stress in tourist islands: the case of Rhodes,Greece

Abstract

Tourism increases, diversifies and concentrates water consumption in space and time; it contributes to social-ecological processes that often make tourist destinations vulnerable to water stress. Climate change projections foresee an increase in water stress problems in many tourist resorts. Tourist islands are particularly challenged due to their geographical isolation and the limited options for enhancing supply. Despite the significance of the problem, the understanding of the tourism and water–stress complex remains under-researched. In this article, we aim at a novel, integrated and spatiotemporally dynamic conceptualization of tourist islands’ vulnerability to water stress. To do this, we begin by presenting the “Water-Tourism Social-Ecological Systems framework” based on literature on water and tourism, social-ecological systems, adaptation, vulnerability, resilience, and island studies. We then apply this framework to investigate the so far underexplored vulnerability to water stress of the island of Rhodes (Greece). Results from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders along with secondary sources provide insights into the Rhodes Water-Tourism SES dynamics. Our analysis provides an interdisciplinary and multidimensional lens to the water-stress and -tourism complex. It enriches the literature of tourism and water and gives the opportunity to open up the scope of solutions that are being discussed.     

Sustainability and Local Tourism Branding in England's South Downs

This paper reports on a stakeholder consultation exercise that examined the tourism industry's perception of developing a local tourism branding scheme within the South Downs' protected areas in south-east England. The research shows that such schemes could offer potential benefits that are recognisable by the tourism industry, while helping to meet the statutory aims of the protected area. The paper records the perceptions of small tourism businesses, their fears, awareness of tourism impacts, perceptions of sustainable tourism and of local branding, and key criteria connected to the future organisation of a local tourism branding scheme. The conclusion lists the recommendations for the implementation of a local branding scheme, including grassroots stakeholder consultation that encourages ownership and participation, institutional frameworks that support capacity-building and the importance of developing core values within a local brand.     

Assessing the vulnerability of beach tourism and non-beach tourism to climate change: a case study from Jamaica

The Jamaican tourism industry is very climate sensitive, and, like most Caribbean islands, Jamaica's main tourism product is coastal, centered on “sun, sea and sand”. The island is susceptible to many risks posed by climate change, including sea level rise and extreme events, with resultant impacts such as beach erosion, flooding, saline intrusion into aquifers and general coastal degradation. This paper evaluates the relative vulnerability of beach versus non-beach tourism in Jamaica, using 43 pre-determined literature-linked indicators. These comprise bio-geophysical, social, technological, economical, technological and institutional factors. Four case areas are assessed using multi-criteria decision analysis to derive vulnerability scores for each area. The study finds that non-beach tourism operations should not be automatically perceived as less vulnerable than beach-based operations. Sustainable adaptation options are complex and numerous, and overall beach tourism businesses have better insurance, emergency savings, disaster plans and backup power facilities, among others. They also have the advantage of being in business longer than the inland resorts, a firmer business structure and an extensive marketing budget. In the long term, better adaptation and planning by inland businesses could change this balance.     

Tourism and community resilience in the Anthropocene: accentuating temporal overtourism

Abstract

Global tourism growth is unprecedented. Consequently, this has elevated the sector as a key plank for economic development, and its utility is deeply embedded in political, economic and social-ecological discourse. Where the expansion of the sector leverages natural and cultural landscapes, this applies pressure to social and ecological underpinnings that if not reconciled, can become problematic. The way this plays out in Australia’s Shipwreck Coast and the wider Great Ocean Road region, especially the implications for community resilience, is the focus. Emphasis is placed on the vulnerability of peripheral coastal areas to development that withdraws from destination endowments, yet fails to provide commensurate economic yield as a suitable trade-off. This is obvious where tourism intensification has led to concerns about the breach of normative carrying capacities. Temporal overtourism driven by seasonal overcrowding is countenanced as emblematic of tourism in the Anthropocene where focus tends to be largely growth-oriented, with much less attention given to bolstering social-ecological resilience, especially community resilience. At stake is the resilience of regional areas and their communities, who in the absence of garnering commensurate economic returns from tourism expansion find themselves in social and ecological deficit.     

Protected area policies and sustainable tourism: influences,relationships and co-evolution

This paper explores the adoption of sustainable tourism ideas in a Park Authority's policies over a period of two decades in a developed world, category V protected area. There is only limited research on influences encouraging the inclusion of sustainable tourism ideas in protected area policies, or on relationships between sustainable tourism policies and other policy priorities. The paper departs from an approach which considers sustainable tourism policies in isolation, because potentially they are reformulations or extensions of other previous policies, or else indirect outcomes of other policies. There is assessment of influences on the Park Authority's sustainable tourism policies, and of the co-evolution between sustainable tourism policies and other policies. Such influences as government funding reductions and rising concern for community well-being affected the Authority's adoption of sustainable tourism ideas. Incorporation of sustainable tourism ideas in policies occurred gradually. It involved re-labelling established policies as well as reframing and extending those policies. It was often an indirect outcome of policy developments not focused specifically on sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism-related policies co-evolved with, and through, policies for community well-being, actor participation, and sustainable development. The approach used here is relevant for research on policy co-evolution in other policy fields.     

Monitoring tourism flows and destination management: Empirical evidence for Portugal

We propose the use of a tool recently introduced by Gayer (2010), known as the “economic climate tracer”, to analyze and monitor the cyclical evolution of tourism source markets to Portugal. Considering the period 1987–2015, we evaluate how tourism to Portugal has been affected by economic cycles. This tool is useful as it clearly illustrates the evolutionary patterns of different markets, and allows us to identify close relationships with economic fluctuations. We found that German tourism plays a leading role, since its movements are followed with delays by tourism flows from other countries, and exhibits higher resilience to shocks. Also, domestic and Spanish tourism have both displayed less irregular behaviors than tourism from other source markets. On the contrary, tourism from the Netherlands and the UK, have displayed irregular patterns, which demonstrates the urgency to diversify tourism source markets to reduce the country's vulnerability to external shocks and economic cycles.     

Can Ecotourism Interpretation Really Lead to Pro-Conservation Knowledge,Attitudes and Behaviour? Evidence from the Galapagos Islands

Proponents of ecotourism within protected areas believe that tour design and interpretation can help mitigate the negative impacts of tourism, human and environmental, and build an educated and motivated constituency that supports environmental conservation and social improvements. However, ecotourism's claims to achieve those objectives are largely untested, and linkages between tourism's operational characteristics and positive changes in tourists” environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours are largely unexplored. This exploratory research investigated the efforts of one Galapagos National Park tour operator to explore whether a well-conceived interpretation/ecotourism product could influence tourists” educational outcomes and support of environmental conservation. Results suggest that well-designed and delivered interpretation during the ecotourism experience can increase knowledge of the host-protected area, supportive attitudes towards resource management issues facing the host-protected area, general environmental behavioural intentions and philanthropic support of conservation.     

Behavioural adaptation to climate change among winter alpine tourists: an analysis of tourist motivations and leisure substitutability

Understanding market responses to climate change impacts has important implications for the sustainability of Australia's winter tourism destinations. Utilising a framework incorporating push–pull tourist motivations and the theory of leisure substitutability, this study sought to explore how winter tourists in Australia will adapt to changes in snow cover in Australia's alpine regions under future climate change scenarios. The results of a questionnaire completed by 231 respondents indicated that tourist motivations were related to behavioural adaptation, and that there is a general preference among the current winter market for spatial substitution in the event of poor snow. Those motivated by recreation specialisation or snow-related attributes were likely to opt for spatial substitution, while tourists motivated by self-expression and après ski activities displayed resilience to poor snow conditions. The results demonstrate a clear division between leisure-driven tourists who valued participation in sport, and experience-driven tourists, who displayed higher resilience to reduced snow under projected climate change scenarios. These results have practical implications for winter tourism destinations, both in terms of targeting experience-driven tourists in the case of reduced snow as well as the longer term sustainability and viability of winter tourism destinations.     

The Development of Community-based Tourism: Re-thinking the Relationship Between Tour Operators and Development Agents as Intermediaries in Rural and Isolated Area Communities

The purpose of this paper is to invoke a Foucauldian framework in order to re-think the development of community-based tourism by focusing on the relationship between intermediaries and rural and isolated area communities in Papua New Guinea. Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge and governmentality provide a 'way of thinking' about this relationship that challenges the dominant discourse of the tourism industry. To further elaborate these alternative concepts, the researchers lead a discussion through a number of areas that impact on the development of community-based tourism. These include the introduction of western models of management and their ability to undermine traditional forms of knowledge, the conceptualisation of the tourist destination as interactive space, and a critique of the tourism industry through poststructuralist feminist theory. From these perspectives community-based tourism or ecotourism suggests a symbolic or mutual relationship where the tourist is not given central priority but becomes an equal part of the system.     

Using a Regional Tourism Adaptation Framework to Determine Climate Change Adaptation Options for Victoria's Surf Coast

This paper reports research into adaptation to climate change for regional tourism destinations. It explains the application of a regional tourism adaptation framework model to the Surf Coast destination, within the state of Victoria, Australia. It then examines the usefulness of the framework model in guiding a vulnerability resilience assessment of the destination and developing strategies to increase the destinations resilience, resistance and readiness. A Delphi study was conducted, using a panel of experts, to determine the major risks and opportunities for tourism in the region as well as appropriate adaptation options. Although many of the findings focused on the best way to manage the negative bio-physical impacts of climate change, such as increased bushfire risk or more frequent and intense storms, several opportunities also became apparent including the potential to reduce seasonality. Tourism destination management is already a complex area and the introduction of climate change provides yet another challenge for managers and policy-makers. Consequently, the development and use of a regional adaptation framework can play an important role in assisting destination planning and management.     

Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based framework

The COVID-19 pandemic struck the tourism industry severely. Based on the review of 35 papers that studied the tourism industry in the wake of the pandemic, we propose a resilience-based framework for reviving the global tourism industry post-COVID-19. Our framework outlines four prominent factors for building resilience in the industry: government response, technology innovation, local belongingness, and consumer and employee confidence. We argue that using such inclusive resilience; the tourism industry may transform into a new global economic order characterized by sustainable tourism, society's well-being, climate action, and the involvement of local communities. We also offer directions for future research in the area.     

The effect of tourism activity on housing affordability

Although researchers have confirmed the impact of tourism on housing prices in many destinations affected with overtourism, they do not consider housing affordability in relation to the population's income levels. This study explores the relationship between tourism activity and housing affordability, using a sample of Croatian municipalities. Specifically, the study investigates how tourist accommodation, concentration, seasonality and overall vulnerability to tourism influence housing affordability in this emerging tourism-driven European country. The results obtained reveal tourism intensification's deteriorating effect on local residents' abilities to afford housing. The findings indicate a particularly strong tourism seasonality impact, suggesting the presence of common negative externalities, such as employment fluctuations, difficulties in maintaining economic status, and revenue instabilities, in localities prone to seasonal tourism fluctuations.