Adaptive sustainability mechanisms in rural tourism: analysis of concurrent effects of economic sanctions and cost-of-living crisis

This study examines how rural tourism communities in Iran respond to international sanctions and a domestic cost-of-living crisis, exploring how economic constraint shapes sustainability-oriented practices. Using reflexive thematic analysis of 75 semi-structured interviews and field observation in five tourism-dependent villages, we identify crisis-driven adaptation in which collective endurance displaces growth as the organizing logic. Three patterns emerge: (1) extreme scarcity dissolves competitive boundaries, generating reluctant cooperation networks that pool inputs and share risk; (2) communities prioritize adaptive contraction—short-term decisions that stabilize cash flow while accepting managed decline; and (3) informal governance and grassroots learning systems coordinate joint procurement, reciprocal labor, and knowledge exchange in the absence of formal support. These arrangements preserve minimal functionality but inflict human costs, including emotional exhaustion and erosion of trust. The findings contribute to resilience and sustainable tourism debates by illustrating how compound crises reorient adaptation toward continuity rather than recovery; we offer adaptive contraction as an analytical lens—not a reframed paradigm—for understanding sufficiency-based responses under severe compound pressure, with relevance beyond sanctioned settings to other destinations facing protracted constraint. Policy should legitimize informal coordination and direct flexible resources to community-level problem-olving rather than only supporting individual enterprises.