ABSTRACT
The main objective of the book (and of this chapter) is to introduce resilience into tourism debates. Tourism in general and the connection of tourism and resilience as well as destination and resilience has been developed mainly on case studies and not on theoretical processes. The focus of the volume is on concepts, methods of management and governance and business aspects. Therefore, the introductory chapter tries to link the concept of destinations to those of resilience. This objective is based on the assumption that resilience has much explanatory power for destinations coping with changes (Luthe & Wyss, 2014). On the assumption that environmental change and development are challenging destinations, the concept “resilience” as a strategic orientation for regional competitiveness will be discussed. In order to deal with the deterioration of natural, social and economic environments and to manage and handle crisis as well as the challenges arising from them, the article will give a definition of the terms “destination” and “resilience” first, then describe the link between the two concepts.
