Integrating Locals’ Importance–Performance Perception of Community Resilience into Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Management

Abstract

Community resilience and capacity building are key elements in sustainable Indigenous tourism (SIT) and local development, specifically as factors affecting locals’ participation in and communities’ resilience perceptions toward SIT. This study aimed to establish an evaluation framework for SIT in Taiwan based on the aspect of community resilience, using an importance–performance analysis (IPA). We quantitatively surveyed 506 local residents in two touristic townships inhabited by Indigenous tribes: Datong Township in Yilan County and Fengbin Township in Hualien County. Our empirical results reveal a significant gap between the perceived importance and performance of community resilience in SIT. Moreover, the following strategies were prioritized by respondents to enhance local capacity building for SIT: “assisting in building green landscape in the community”, “assisting in creating tribal landscape based on local traditional culture”, and “planning cultural activities based on local traditional knowledge”. Finally, participants who (1) had a higher educational level, (2) lived in the Datong Township, (3) had better attitudes toward job opportunities in sustainable tourism, and (4) had higher perceptions of community resilience were more likely to participate in SIT. Our outcomes synthesize the theoretical constructs and policy implications for community resilience in SIT management that benefit local Indigenous communities.