Tourism and Resilience

Book excerpt: This is the first book to address the concept of resilience and its specific application and relevance to tourism, in particular tourism destinations. Resilience relates to the ability of organisms, communities, ecosystems and populations to withstand the impacts of external forces while retaining their integrity and ability to continue functioning. It is particularly applicable to tourism destinations and attractions which are exposed to the potentially harmful and sometimes severe effects of tourism development and visitation, but which also can experience increased resilience from the economic benefits of tourism. Tourism and Resilience is relevant for researchers, students and practitioners in tourism and related fields such as development studies, geography, sociology, anthropology, economics and business/management. Phenomena such as destination communities, wildlife populations and ecosystems are discussed, as well as the ability of places and communities to use tourism and its infrastructure to recover from disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, unrest and disease.