Fast and slow resilience of tourism organisations in the New Zealand tourism sector

Abstract

The New Zealand tourism sector is a nature-based industry facing a range of challenges caused by rapid and slow onset natural events (including earthquakes, volcanoes, climate change), as well as a range of social, political and economic factors. Resilience planning measures have been adopted across many scales and contexts, from government to destination and enterprise level initiatives. This conceptual paper documents the resilience planning approaches being developed in two South Island tourism destinations as a consequence of rapid change and uncertainty. It builds on the resilience literature addressing scale and rate of change, and draws conclusions about the resilience of tourism businesses and destinations facing both slow and rapid onset disasters.