A territorial innovation framework for socio-ecological resilience in desert tourism regions

Desert tourism destinations in arid and dryland environments face increasing socio-ecological pressures, including climate change, water scarcity, environmental degradation, external tourism market pressures, and institutional fragmentation. These conditions constrain tourism development and highlight the need for resilience-oriented planning and governance. Although resilience has gained attention in tourism studies, existing approaches often remain spatially generic and insufficiently connected to the territorial conditions shaping development pathways in arid regions. This study develops a conceptual framework that reframes desert tourism resilience through a territorial-innovation lens. Based on a qualitative synthesis of literature on desert tourism, socio-ecological resilience, ecotourism, and regional development, the framework conceptualizes resilience as an emergent outcome of interactions among contextual and external drivers, territorially embedded innovation mechanisms, and adaptive socio-ecological capacities. The proposed three-layer framework shows that current research emphasizes governance, social engagement, environmental stewardship, and planning-oriented innovation, while technological, economic, regulatory, and implementation-oriented innovation pathways remain underexplored. By structuring these relationships, the study contributes to debates on human–environment interactions, adaptive governance, and regional development in dryland regions. The framework offers a conceptual tool for interpreting resilience dynamics and guiding future empirical inquiry in climate-sensitive, resource-constrained tourism systems.