Understanding how context affects resilience and its consequences for sustainable tourism

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of understanding the context of Social-Ecological Systems for the management of sustainable and resilient destinations. Specifically, we argue that context plays a key role in how tourism destinations are affected by and react to slow and fast change drivers occurring at different system scales. Depending on the context, change can be a facilitator or barrier to sustainability and resilience. We use Vanuatu as an example to illustrate theoretical concepts and finalise with avenues for research on context in the South Pacific and beyond, and for research on change and resilience more generally.