Small island states and resilience building during the Covid-19 pandemic : the case of tourism

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate the concept of resilience to adverse external shocks emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on nine small island states (SIS) that are highly dependent on tourism. The study also aims to assess two broad categories of actions conducive to such resilience, with the first relating to government policy, labelled as top-down measures, and the second associated with community responses, labelled as bottom-up actions. This assessment has the intention to extend the conceptual/theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that build resilience in the context of islands and small island studies, and to provide a new methodological framework to appraise resilience, with a focus on tourism.