Assessment of Socioeconomic Resilience to Pandemic Disasters in Island Tourist Destinations

Abstract

The pandemic has led to a sharp contraction in economic activity with diverse businesses shutting down or reducing their operations. The COVID-19 pandemic is recognized as a challenge in the travel and tourism services industry. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the socioeconomic resilience of the island tourist destination of Cozumel and to determine its ability to manage a pandemic by identifying its strengths and weaknesses. This study was based on the Indicators of Socioeconomic Resilience in Island Destinations (ISRID) matrix adapted to the study territory to achieve this aim. As a result, 63 out of 890 research articles were reviewed, from which 1222 indicators were collected; nevertheless, only thirty-three indicators were selected. The assessment was also structured on a matrix of double data collection before and after the pandemic to analyze the evolution of the components essential to strengthening socioeconomic resilience. In this way, this study revealed that the island of Cozumel does not have good risk management in the presence of a pandemic phenomenon. Thus, the principal axes to reinforce abilities were implementing a comprehensive plan with multidisciplinary approaches containing themes like social participation, access to information, health, economic resources, gender inequalities, marginalization, environmental impacts, and endemic resources. Finally, the matrix developed can aid decision-makers in generating corresponding actions when designing, implementing, and evaluating socioeconomic resilience capacities to cope with a pandemic disaster in island tourist destinations.