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Formation Mechanism and Theoretical Model of Resilience in Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Towns

Author(s)

Yuan Hu

Affiliation(s)

Chongqing Vocational College of Science and Technology, Dazu, Chongqing, China

Abstract

Small and medium-sized tourism towns are characterized by high tourism dependence, limited economic scale, dense actor relationships, and sensitive ecological and cultural assets. Their resilience therefore cannot be assessed solely through the recovery of visitor numbers or tourism revenue. Using conceptual analysis and theoretical deduction, this study integrates social-ecological systems theory, evolutionary resilience, dynamic capabilities, and social capital to explain how resilience is formed at the town scale. Resilience is defined as the dynamic capacity of a tourism-town system to maintain critical functions, adjust its structure, and renew its development path under sudden shocks and cumulative pressures. This capacity does not arise directly from the stock of available resources. External shocks and cumulative pressures are first filtered through vulnerabilities such as tourism dependence, concentrated source markets, and infrastructure bottlenecks. Risk perception and collective sensemaking then activate dispersed resources. Resource bricolage, cross-actor coordination, and experimental governance convert those resources into adaptive action, while institutionalized learning promotes organizational and developmental-path adjustment. Performance in resistance, recovery, adaptation, and transformation feeds back into resource reserves, risk perception, and governance rules. Tourism dependence, shock characteristics, spatial accessibility, and the fit between governance and risk scales constitute the principal boundary conditions. The resulting cyclical model offers an analytical framework for understanding resilience formation across different types of tourism towns.

Keywords

Tourism Town; Tourism Resilience; Social-Ecological System; Collaborative Governance; Dynamic Capability

References

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