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

Abstract

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.

从脆弱性到转变：评估旅游目的地的脆弱性和弹性的框架

旅游是全球社会经济进步的主要驱动。但是，它的可持续性因为威胁到社区生活的多个冲击和危害而是有风险的。另人惊讶的是，对目的地脆弱性的复杂原因是鲜为人知的，导致了创造和应用无效的弹性建设方法。该文章介绍了一个可用的目的地可持续性框架来评估目的地脆弱性和弹性，还有支持成功的弹性建设目标。整体来说，包括：）冲击或压力，）脆弱性的互相联系多个方面曝光度，敏感度和系统适应性，）表达多个行为的后果的动态反馈循环（或不表达），）形成目的地和他们特性的概念化原因和驱动，）多个空间规模，和）在出现的社会生态变化下的多个时间框架。该创新性的框架是很重要的因为没有其他的理论框架存在。另外它将旅游可持续性研究带入与在动态的人环境系统下达到可持续性的更广的讨论。这是通过对当代系统方法观点的总结来达到的，包括混沌复杂性理论，脆弱性方法，可持续性科学，弹性思考，和规模，地方和时间的地理问题。

Keywords:

• sustainability
• development
• tourism
• vulnerability
• resilience
• context

关键词:

• 可持续性
• 发展
• 旅游
• 脆弱性
• 弹性
• 内容

Acknowledgements

We thank Macquarie University for the lead author's Australian Postgraduate Award to undertake this research, Stockholm Environmental Institute for financial assistance and Kannapa Pongponrat and Sopon Naruchaikusol for their help with data collection.

We also thank Richie Howitt and Frank Thomalla as well as the editors and referees for their detailed advice on earlier drafts of this manuscript, which has improved the final paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma Calgaro

Emma Calgaro is a human geographer at the Australia–Pacific Natural Hazards Research Lab at UNSW, Sydney. Her research explores the drivers of vulnerability and resilience in the coupled human–environment system. Specifically, she focuses on understanding the complex set of contextual factors (sociocultural, political, economic and biophysical) that impede and/or improve resilience and vulnerability levels to risk, with a strong focus on contextual vulnerability in tourism destinations. Her research aims to advance the theoretical underpinnings of vulnerability research and sustainability science and applying these theoretical advances to the tourism context.

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd is a senior lecturer in the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on critical development geography and socio-economic change in Asia with a special focus on tourism. In particular, her research in tourism is strongly connected to policy and community development outcomes with an emphasis on government–private sector collaboration and communication.

Dale Dominey-Howes

Dale Dominey-Howes is a professor at the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, Sydney. His interests are in natural hazards, hazard, risk and vulnerability assessment, disaster and emergency management. He is particularly interested in the interconnections between biophysical systems and the socio-economic contexts in which disasters unfold and considers “natural hazards” in terms of coupled human–environment systems and policy.