Developing a resilience-based adaptive co-management framework: public sectors’ insights on the role of tourism

Abstract

Public-private partnerships are essential to effective disaster response and recovery. Given their scare resources, it is neither efficient nor practical for governing bodies to bear the sole responsibility for maintaining an ever-ready disaster response infrastructure and workforce. While it is necessary and admirable for governments to improve their internal disaster response mechanisms, a community's resilience can also be enhanced by leveraging private entities and their assets. This study utilized the Adaptive co-management (ACM) framework to examine existing partnerships between emergency operations centers and the tourism industry in co-managing hurricane-related disasters. By utilizing group discussion and individual interviews, this study reveals the public sectors’ expectations of the tourism industry when partnering to co-manage disasters. The findings highlight theoretical and practical implications for current public-private partnerships and the need to improve these efforts in disaster management. Several critical deficiencies are identified and discussed, including interagency trust, financial support, and communication.