Building resilient local tourism systems: insights from New Zealand's premier cycling attractions

ABSTRACT

Using a framework based on seven principles that build resilience in socio ecological systems, this paper explores how two prominent cycle tourism attractions in New Zealand have been able to adapt to exogenous and endogenous change over several decades. The findings, based on interviews with actors involved in management and governance roles, identifies five factors that have contributed to the resilience demonstrated by these exemplar cases and notes the potential of the seven principles as a guiding framework for organisations responsible for managing or governing similar local tourism systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Socio-ecological resilience
• cycling
• tourism system
• New Zealand
• mountain biking
• rail trail

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).