The Misunderstanding Between Tourism Resilience and Survival: Stakeholder Perceptions and Policy Effectiveness in Ecuador During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Freddy Espinoza-Figueroa, Dominique Vanneste, Byron Alvarado-Vanegas (), Karina Farfán-Pacheco, Santiago Rodríguez-Girón and Victor Saquicela
Additional contact information
Freddy Espinoza-Figueroa: PREIT-Tour Research Group, Faculty of Hospitality Sciences, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010150, Ecuador
Dominique Vanneste: Division of Geography & Tourism, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Byron Alvarado-Vanegas: PREIT-Tour Research Group, Faculty of Hospitality Sciences, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010150, Ecuador
Karina Farfán-Pacheco: PREIT-Tour Research Group, Faculty of Hospitality Sciences, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010150, Ecuador
Santiago Rodríguez-Girón: PREIT-Tour Research Group, Faculty of Hospitality Sciences, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010150, Ecuador
Victor Saquicela: Department of Computer Science, University of Cuenca, Cuenca 010150, Ecuador

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-33

Abstract: Tourism has proven to be highly vulnerable to external disruptions, particularly in communities with low levels of tourism development. In this context, this study examines residents’ attitudes towards tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses the impact of public and private initiatives in the Cajas Massif Biosphere Area (CMBA), located in southern Ecuador. Employing a mixed-methods approach, 825 surveys were conducted alongside 25 interviews with key sector stakeholders. The objective was to determine whether these attitudes reflect genuine resilience or merely a survival strategy in response to the crisis. The findings indicate that, despite some collective efforts and mitigation plans, the primary focus remained on short-term income preservation, while government policies prioritised tourism promotion over addressing structural needs, ultimately proving inadequate for tourism recovery. This scenario placed the burden of adaptation on residents, with expressions of solidarity that, however, diminished as the crisis subsided. This study concludes that reactive measures may be mistaken for genuine resilience, highlighting the need for comprehensive policies and more equitable stakeholder participation to strengthen social cohesion and ensure the viability of tourism in the face of future crises.

Keywords: resilience; survival; planned behaviour; resident attitudes; stakeholders; COVID-19; Ecuador (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4034/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/4034/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:9:p:4034-:d:1646275

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().