Beyond attraction: Unveiling Bali's cultural community's role in bolstering tourism resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The unique culture of a society is often used as the basis for developing tourism. However, cultural research attached to society seems to only see it as a ‘package,’ not the main essence of that culture. In the context of a crisis, especially the Covid-19 pandemic, Balinese culture has developed into a tool for building resilient tourism. This assumption serves as the foundational premise for this research, aimed at mapping and identifying the variables driving tourism community resilience. The research focuses on Bali, Indonesia's premier tourist destination, and engages six types of tourism stakeholders. Employing a modified approach that combines soft system methodology (SSM) and network analysis, several insights emerge regarding establishing tourism community resilience. The social-cultural dimension, particularly social collectivism, appears as a pivotal factor for the resurgence of tourism during times of crisis. Social collectivism plays a role in restoring resilience cycles in the context of sustainable tourism. The result recommended that it is crucial to comprehend destinations at various levels, ranging from the individual to the state level, to attain tourism community resilience. Establishing sustainable tourism does not imply the centralization of tourism but rather focuses on integrating tourism seamlessly into the existing social-ecological system.