Abstract Type: Independent oral presentation
Abstract TitleResilience of the Great Barrier Reef tourism sector to the COVID-19 pandemic, and adaptation in response to extreme events
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Abstract
Extreme events like the COVID-19 pandemic can devastate businesses, industry sectors, and regional economies, but they can also catalyse adaptation and innovation. Regional, sectoral and enterprise resilience to shocks depends on their absorptive and adaptive capacities; however, lasting, or transformative adaptation does not necessarily arise during a crisis or in its immediate wake. Our qualitative case study of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) tourism sector in Australia explored factors contributing to its resilience and adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most severe and long-lasting disruption in the sector’s modern history. During the period of travel restrictions, border closures and reopenings in 2021-2022, we interviewed 26 expert key informants, purposively sampled from the tourism industry (n=13) and supporting institutions connected to the sector (e.g., industry organisations and government agencies; n=13). We used a general inductive approach to analyse the transcripts, followed by stakeholder checks of preliminary findings and themes to verify our results and conclusions. From the analysis we outline the range of short-term adaptive responses taken at enterprise and network scales, adaptive capacity attributes that contributed most to sectoral functioning during the pandemic, and lessons to help prepare for future extreme events. While sector-specific transformative change arising from the pandemic was not (yet) evident, respondents shared a vision for the sector’s future and identified tangible examples of transformative adaptation in progress, catalysed by climate change and recent mass coral bleaching events.
Related Conference Topic Area
recreation and tourism
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Presenter Information
First Name Matt |
Last Name Curnock |
Affiliation CSIRO Environment, Australia |
Author(s) Information
Author | First Name | Last Name | Affiliation |
1 | Matt | Curnock | CSIRO Environment, Australia |
2 | David | Fleming-Muñoz | CSIRO Environment, Australia |
3 | Henry | Bartelet | The Cairns Institute, James Cook University |
4 | Ingrid | van Putten | CSIRO Environment, Australia |