From Reef to region: a multi-scalar analysis of tourism resilience

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is one of the world’s most iconic tourism destinations, supporting local economies along Australia’s northeast coast. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted global tourism, with particularly acute effects on regions like the GBR that depend heavily on inbound visitors. Using a multi-scalar resilience framework grounded in ecological theory and regional studies scholarship, we analyse economic indicators of impact and recovery across spatial and functional scales in the GBR region. Drawing on monthly and annual data from 2013 to 2023, we examine how tourism and employment patterns in the GBR marine park and surrounding coastal areas responded to pandemic-related shocks and recovery phases. Our findings reveal marked variation in resilience across time, space, and scale. Marine-based tourism recovered more slowly than broader regional visitation, while remote and tourism-dependent subregions were more vulnerable to disruption. In contrast, employment impacts were less pronounced, likely cushioned by national policy interventions such as the JobKeeper wage subsidy. This study offers methodological and empirical insights into how tourism systems respond to severe disturbances, with implications for monitoring and enhancing resilience in tourism-dependent regions exposed to global shocks and market volatility.