Abstract

While tourism scholars have sought to problematize the unevenly distributed impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know much less about how resilience is cultivated among tourism practitioners and communities whose lives and livelihoods are have been placed in limbo. Drawing on literature at the intersection of critical tourism studies and resilience theory as well as interviews with local tourism practitioners and academics, four historically situated and place-based trends in Southeast Asia that are reshaping tourism in the region are outlined: livelihood diversification, ecosystem regeneration, cultural revitalization, and domestic tourism development. These trends highlight how the political economy of tourism in the region has both challenged and facilitated opportunities for reshaping the industry in (post-) pandemic times. These interconnected trends should not be understood in silo but rather as historically rooted and place-based experiences. The examples of resilience among Southeast Asian residents presented in the article demonstrate that local individuals and communities are active agents in resilience. While the concept of resilience has been applied widely by scholars from multiple disciplines during the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical tourism studies approach to resilience theory accounts for the historically situated nuances of local scale dynamics and their relationship to macro-level processes. Rather than simply focusing on the pandemic’s sudden transformative effects, practices of resilience in Southeast Asia reflect ongoing political-economic and cultural shifts that have often been underway in the region for several decades. The conclusion identifies several policy implications and future directions for tourism research in (post-) pandemic times.

摘要

虽然旅游学者试图对 COVID-19 大流行的分布不均的影响提出问题，但我们对如何在生活和生计陷入困境的旅游从业者和社区中培养复原力知之甚少。借鉴批判旅游研究和复原力理论交叉点的文献以及对当地旅游从业者和学者的采访，概述了东南亚正在重塑该地区旅游业的四个历史位置和基于地方的趋势：生计多样化、生态系统再生、文化振兴和国内旅游发展。这些趋势凸显了该地区旅游业的政治经济如何既挑战又促进了在（后）大流行时期重塑该行业的机会。这些相互关联的趋势不应孤立地理解，而应理解为根植于历史和基于地方的体验。文章中介绍的东南亚居民韧性的例子表明，当地个人和社区是韧性的积极推动者。尽管在 COVID-19 大流行期间来自多个学科的学者广泛应用了复原力的概念，但复原力理论的批判性旅游研究方法解释了当地规模动态的历史细微差别及其与宏观过程的关系。东南亚的复原力实践并非仅仅关注大流行的突然变革性影响，而是反映了该地区几十年来经常发生的持续的政治经济和文化转变。