Rewilding as a destination development phenomenon: Examining community resilience through a systems thinking lens

This study connects tourism attractions and community resilience through rewilding at a landscape scale using ecological systems theory. The study identifies proximal and distal factors that influence how the tourism development and rewilding phenomenon impacts community resilience in nature-based tourism destinations. Data for this study were collected through secondary data analysis and in-depth interviews with 26 tourism and conservation stakeholders in Corrientes, Argentina, where major tourism and rewilding investments had recently taken place. The findings revealed several core themes and abundant proximal and distal factors that influence how tourism and rewilding impact community resilience. These themes included cultural and natural capitals’ interconnectedness, flourishing of socioecological interventions, and stakeholder vision congruence. The study findings and a conceptual framework contribute to tourism literature by demonstrating how multi-level factors influence the impact of tourism development and rewilding on community resilience based on their compatibilities with local and national priorities.