Examining the relationship between social capital and community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations

ABSTRACT

A thorough understanding of the influencing factors and mechanisms of community resilience in tourism destinations is vital not only for recovery after disasters but also for strengthening the adaptive capacity of community residents to manage sudden change. This study aims to investigate the roles of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital in enhancing community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations. Based on data derived from a survey of 691 residents of China's Dujiangyan scenic areas and Jiuzhai Valley National Park, this study used structural equation modeling to test the relationship between community residents' perceived social capital and resilience in tourism destinations. The findings suggest that the three types of social capital have significantly positive effects on community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations. In China's centralized political system, linking social capital is the most important type of social capital in community disaster recovery. An interaction effect between bonding, bridging, and linking social capital is found. This study's results help managers and community residents cultivate social capital, improve community resilience and maintain sustainable tourism development.

KEYWORDS:

• Community resilience
• sustainable tourism
• social capital
• disaster
• tourism crisis
• disaster management

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Prof. Daniel C. Knudsen, Indiana University, for his suggestions. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments .

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41501147]; Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number 16EYC008]; Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation [grant number 2017A030310475].

Notes on contributors

Yongrui Guo

Yongrui Guo is an associate professor in the School of History Culture and Tourism at Jiangsu Normal University, China. He received PhD in Tourism Geography and Tourism Planning from Nanjing University. His research interests include tourism community resilience, tourist flow analysis and tourism economics.

Jie Zhang

Jie Zhang is a professor in the Department of Land Resources and Tourism Sciences at Nanjing University, China. His research interests include tourism geography, heritage tourism, soundscape and Chinese calligraphic landscape.

Yuling Zhang

Yuling Zhang is a research assistant in the Guangzhou Institute of Geography, China. She received PhD in Tourism Geography and Tourism Planning from Nanjing University. Her research interests include sustainable tourism and destination environment management.

Chunhui Zheng

Chunhui Zheng is a lecturer in the School of Tourism at Guangzhou University, China. She received PhD in Tourism Geography and Tourism Planning from Nanjing University. Her research interests include heritage tourism, tourists' behavior and tourism geography.