Sustainability-oriented tourism ecosystems and island resilience: evidence from Thailand and South Korea

This study investigates how Open Innovation Orientation contributes to adaptive island resilience through Renewable Energy Tourism Attractiveness, Green Innovation Capability, and Tourism Co-Creation Ecosystem in Koh Larn Island, Thailand, and Jeju Island, South Korea. A quantitative research design was employed using questionnaire surveys collected from 500 tourists, and the data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), including measurement invariance assessment, multi-group analysis (MGA), and out-of-sample predictive assessment. The findings indicate that Open Innovation Orientation is positively associated with both Renewable Energy Tourism Attractiveness and Green Innovation Capability. Renewable Energy Tourism Attractiveness is positively associated with Green Innovation Capability and Tourism Co-Creation Ecosystem, while Green Innovation Capability is positively associated with Tourism Co-Creation Ecosystem. Most importantly, Tourism Co-Creation Ecosystem demonstrates the strongest positive relationship with Adaptive Island Resilience. The MGA results indicate that the structural relationships are generally consistent across Koh Larn Island and Jeju Island, with no statistically significant differences identified between the two groups. The predictive assessment further indicates satisfactory out-of-sample predictive capability of the proposed model. This study contributes to sustainable tourism literature by integrating open innovation, renewable energy tourism, green innovation, tourism co-creation, and adaptive resilience into a unified sustainability-oriented framework for island tourism development.