Resilience and recovery: insights from Chinese tourism

This study explores tourism resilience both theoretically and empirically within the context of a public health crisis. A theoretical framework of tourism resilience, grounded in social–ecological system resilience theory, is developed, alongside a Tourism Resilience Index System to quantify city-level destination‐s tourism resilience levels. Using this framework, the tourism resilience levels of 251 cities in China are assessed. Then the article examines the relationship between tourism resilience and tourism recovery of the 251 cities during two specific time windows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical results reveal that the recovery of a destination is significantly bolstered by tourism resilience and its three subdimensions: adaptability, self-organizing ability, and innovation ability. Moreover, of the three subdimensions, the innovation ability plays the most vital role in determining the destination recovery level. Based on these findings, the study provides recommendations for enhancing the resilience of tourism destinations to better cope with future public health crises.