Harnessing resilience and sustainability in a world of increasing disorder

The Marsden-funded research (2022-2025) is led by Dr Apisalome Movono, who has extensive experience examining issues of tourism, adaptation and community development in the Pacific. Other team members include Prof. Regina Scheyvens (Massey University) and Distinguished Prof. Steven Ratuva (Canterbury University).

About this project

This research explores how the South Pacific tourism system can be reimagined to harness resilience and sustainability in a world of increasing disorder. It will use a hopeful post-development approach to examine Pacific tourism exchanges, policy design and adaptation, while identifying innovative opportunities for improved tourism practice. Currently, the identified opportunities include regenerative tourism, regional integration, and grassroots resilience building, and these will guide the inquiry and act as a means for extending tourism beyond the current ‘war on tourism’. It is anticipated that this research will make a significant contribution to re-interpreting resilience theory from the perspective of Indigenous people in the Pacific, and provide the necessary empirical basis for the rejuvenation of Pacific tourism.

This research has four key objectives:

1. Analyse government and private sector responses to the crisis in tourism

2. Explore adaptive patterns and signs of community resilience in Fiji and Vanuatu

3. Investigate emergent leadership and its potential to further radical innovation in resilience building.

4. Identify pathways for transforming tourism practice in the Pacific.

Publications

Silver linings around dark clouds: Tourism, Covid-19 and a return to traditional values, villages and the vanua

(Movono, Scheyvens and Auckram, 2022)