How do multidimensional tourism factors affect community resilience?

Abstract

Community resilience is increasingly evaluated in light of growing uncertainties posed by disasters. While earlier research primarily focused on community-level factors, such as average income and education levels, recent studies have highlighted the importance of individual perceptions and industry contributions in shaping community resilience. Based on earlier discussions on the spatially diverse impacts of tourism on community resilience, this study investigates how individual- and industry-level factors in tourism contribute to community resilience over time and across regions. Using geographically weighted regression, we examined the spatially heterogeneous impacts of tourism factors on community resilience in tourism-dependent communities in Florida and the broader United States for 2015 and 2020. Notably, in contrast to national trends, excessive tourist congestion in Florida was not associated with a decline in community resilience, even when individual awareness of climate change was high. This indicates that raising awareness of climate change alone may be insufficient unless issues like tourist influx are directly addressed. Our findings emphasize the multidimensional nature of community resilience, advancing resilience theory and providing practical insights for localized strategies aimed at enhancing community resilience, particularly in tourism-dependent communities.