Resilience in the visitor economy : cultural economy, human social networks, and slow change in the regional periphery

Questions concerning the resilience of regional areas have risen to prominence as the downstream impacts of local and global change, including globalization effects, socio-demographic transformations, economic restructuring, and decline of traditional industries (such as agriculture and mining) are more marked in peripheral settings. This occurs at a time when regional and local governments have experienced diminishing authority over planning, regulating, and shaping their immediate social, economic, and environmental contexts. In confronting the issue of the visitor or tourism economy in regional contexts, Kneafsey’s (2001: 762) assertion that ‘the countryside is increasingly viewed as both a commodity in itself and as a set of commodifiable signs and symbols’ epitomizes the economic utility of such places and this is a central platform of the chapter. Connectivity as part of human social networks is contextualized with resilient regional tourism in accordance with Lew’s (2014: 18) assessment where the emphasis is on ‘slow change challenges that a community or collective must address’, which is ‘beyond the interests of any one individual or enterprise’.