Building dynamic capabilities in tourism organisations for disaster management: enablers and barriers

Dynamic capabilities enable tourism organisations to manage crises and disasters, yet many do not possess these competencies. This paper investigates the factors that enable or impede the development of dynamic capabilities in tourism organisations that help them to survive and thrive in crises or disaster environments. These enablers and barriers to build dynamic capabilities are compared across tourism organisations considering their age, size, and sector. Findings from 40 in-depth interviews with tourism business operators and other stakeholders in a disaster-prone region over two years show that knowledge-based, human-related, relational, and financial slack resources are important enablers of building dynamic capabilities in times of disasters. Internal process restrictions and external over-regulation act as major barriers to develop dynamic capabilities. The findings show that tourism organisations should consider reliance on the broader system in which multiple levels of actors are actively engaged in resource integration and develop shared values to enable adaptive capacity. Policymakers and tourism organisations can use this study to evaluate the appropriateness of their resources and processes in developing dynamic capabilities and thus achieve a more sustainable future in uncertain times.