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Description:

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a serious shock to global tourism. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the only challenge – although the most concrete now – that the tourism businesses, tourism-dependent communities and destinations are facing. Global climate change, loss of biodiversity and economic instability are creating major needs for the industry to mitigate, adjust and adapt to a changing operative environment in the relatively near future. In addition, changing geopolitics and related bordering processes and possible economic sanction policies may create challenges for tourism destination governance. All this can challenge the sustainability of tourism. This calls for a new kind of resilience thinking. In general, resilience has become one of the major conceptual tools to understand and deal with change in tourism. It is a multi-scalar idea referring to the capacity of individuals and human systems to absorb disturbance and reorganise their functionality while undergoing a change. While it is a potential tool for sustainability, it involves also problematic elements that may emphasise path-dependency and lock-ins in the development that may obstruct us to see the core problems beyond symptoms.

This session focuses on resilience thinking and sustainable development needs in tourism in the changing socio-ecological, economic and political contexts. In addition, the session discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism destination development and governance. The session welcomes both conceptual papers and empirical case studies.

Non-Presenting Participants Agenda