Change in winter tourism destinations - A socio-ecological system-based framework to enhance regional resilience

This study addresses the challenges of transformative change in rural tourism destinations affected by climate change. Global warming and structural changes in winter tourism require a product shift and transition toward a more resilient development. Although the current literature emphasizes the need for transformation and resilience, it still fails to provide the appropriate processes and methods to achieve these goals. The paper at hand aims to close this research gap by providing a novel framework for socio-ecological resilience and testing it in a region impacted by climate change in Lower Austria. The methodological approach is based on a scoping literature review and the detailed analysis of five existing European frameworks. The novel framework proposes eight criteria including 25 indicators to analyze the regional resilience as well as strengths and weaknesses. The application of the framework using a mixed methods approach reveals the underlying structural dynamics of the destination. It builds comprehensive knowledge of how decision-makers can utilize leverage points for more sustainable futures for winter tourism destinations. The results underline the importance of an integrated broad set of indicators including social dimensions such as the networks surrounding key stakeholders and adaptive learning for regional transformations.