ABSTRACT
This chapter takes Guanxian Ancient Town, a cultural tourism destination in Sichuan Province, China, which was struck by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, as the study site to investigate the disturbances suffered by small enterprises and their responses. The resilience of small enterprises in Guanxian Ancient Town is analyzed to contribute to the understanding of small tourism business resilience. The chapter describes how small businesses respond to exogenous disturbances is adopted as the main criterion of resilience. In addition, the "essential structure, identity, and functioning" of small businesses are also taken into consideration, and they are identified in this study as persisting with the business operations in Guanxian Ancient Town. A resilient small business in Guanxian Ancient Town is defined as one that is able to survive, adapt, grow, or otherwise keep operating through a crisis.
