Resilience and recovery: A systematic review of tourism governance strategies in disaster-affected regions

Abstract

The global landscape is witnessing an escalating threat from natural hazards, permeating various sectors, notably tourism. Within this context, governance strategies emerge as pivotal instruments, not only to attenuate the risks associated with natural hazards but also to bolster resilience. This research endeavors to discern and evaluate efficacious governance strategies that can amplify disaster recovery and resilience in tourism-centric locales. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, we undertook a systematic review of literature published between January 2000 and March 2023. From this corpus, 48 salient documents were meticulously selected, and a narrative synthesis was employed to elucidate the findings and prevalent governance strategies. Our findings highlight four key governance modalities: risk assessment and mitigation, collaborative planning and policy development, community empowerment and capacity building, and adaptive and context-specific governance. These modalities hold the potential to reduce tourism vulnerabilities while fostering disaster recovery and resilience. Moreover, our research delineates primary governance strategies, encompassing pre-disaster preparedness, risk assessment and stewardship, crisis management, stakeholder collaboration, and community engagement. These strategies were distinguished through a tripartite process: pinpointing key stakeholders, evaluating tourism infrastructure, and crafting tourism recovery plans. Several strategies have been revealed for promoting sustainable tourism, such as community-based tourism development, integrated planning and management, promotion of ecotourism, capacity building, training, monitoring, and evaluation, and policy and regulatory framework. By incorporating these evidence-based practices, policymakers and stakeholders have the ability to develop plans for ensuring a future for the tourism sector that is resilient and sustainable.