Adapting and reacting to Covid-19: Tourism and resilience in the South Pacific (2022)

Type of Content
Journal ArticlePublisher
Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific StudiesISSN
2463-641XCollections
Abstract
As with small islands around the globe, many of the island states of the South Pacific are heavily dependent on tourism revenue. This article examines how tourism development and its disturbance by Covid-19 has influenced socio-cultural and economic changes among Indigenous communities in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Cook Islands, and Fiji. In particular, it demonstrates how the cessation of international tourism in established destination communities has created shifts in the way people live and their livelihood approaches which have moved towards a revival of customary practices. This study was led by Massey University researchers through partnerships with research associates (RAs) based in-country: an online survey and on-site interviews by RAs, along with Zoom interviews by the authors, provided primary data. The paper argues that although Covid-19 has had difficult financial consequences, it has also motivated innovative, culturallybased responses that allow people to adapt effectively to the loss in income associated with border closures. Such changes point to valuable lessons that could inform the management of more resilient tourism in the Pacific.
Rights
CC BY 4.0Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Fortune favours the digitally mature: The impact of digital maturity on the organisational resilience of SME retailers during COVID-19
Robertson J; Botha E; Walker B; Wordsworth, Russell; Balzarova, Michaela (2022)Purpose Organisational resilience and digital maturity both explain how some organisations are better able to cope with unexpected disruptions. However, research exploring the relationship between these two concepts, and ... -
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) project on the Canterbury Earthquake Series and SME Resilience: Report 7: Improving the resilience of SMEs: policy and practice in New Zealand
Hatton, T.; Seville, E.; Vargo, J. (University of Canterbury. Department of Accounting and Information Systems, 2012)There are many things that organisations of any size can do to prepare for a disaster or crisis. Traditionally, the advice given to business has focused on identifying risks, reducing their likely occurrence, and planning ... -
Sound tracks of the Black Pacific: Music, identity and resilience in Australian South Sea Islander communities
Webb-Gannon, Camellia; Webb, Michael (Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, 2018)Australian South Sea Islanders, the descendants of the Melanesians from (primarily) Vanuatu and Solomon Islands who were ‘blackbirded’ to Queensland and New South Wales (1847-1904) for their labour, have, through music and ...