Incorporating 'resilience' in the sustainable tourism discourse: Illustrations from New Zealand’s nature-based tourism sector

Abstract

‘Sustainability’ has endured as an important concept for tourism scholars for over two decades. More recently, ‘resilience’ has generated appeal as a term that encompasses core aspects of sustainability, while acknowledging the considerable influences that environmental contexts (social, cultural, economic, ecological and physical) have on the capacity of communities to adapt to changing conditions and ultimately sustain their tourism enterprises.

Drawing upon recent empirical case studies of protected area tourism on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, this paper considers the evidence of resilience among tourism stakeholders facing multiple environmental and economic risks, and reflects on the implications for sustainability. Of particular interest are the social adaptations that stakeholders have made as a result of exposure to risk.

While resilience has been characterised as a survival attribute - future-oriented and integrative - there is no guarantee that the decisions communities make in the interests of maintaining the short to medium term economic viability of their tourism enterprises will lead to outcomes that are desirable, responsible or sustainable in the long term. Communities largely dependent on tourism, such as those on the West Coast, and in other New Zealand mountain regions, may exhibit strong elements of resilience, demonstrated by their past and current responses to risks and challenges facing business operations. The degree to which all adaptation behaviour can be considered ‘sustainable’ or ‘responsible’ is far less certain, however, confirming the value of both concepts as distinct, albeit overlapping, lenses through which the tourism system can be better understood.