Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a Community Resilience Motivation Model by integrating Tri-Reference Point (TRP) theory with Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction to examine post-disaster recovery in cultural heritage tourism contexts. This study explains recovery as a sequential motivational process in which socio-economic and socio-emotional factors jointly shape community resilience and support for recovery. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling was applied to survey data from 1,548 residents of Gaziantep, Türkiye, a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy affected by the 2023 earthquakes. The model positions recovery trajectories within a motivational framework, identifying minimum requirements, resilience as status quo and intentions to stay and invest as goal states. Findings Government support and economic dependency emerged as critical minimum conditions initiating an externally driven state of “forced resilience”. Sustained recovery commitment depended on internalised socio-emotional bonds, including place attachment, place identity and community solidarity. Community resilience fully mediated the effects of socio-economic and socio-emotional factors on recovery support, and the results of this study challenge linear recovery assumptions by introducing Cultural Resilience Capital as a conceptual extension capturing intrinsic, community-rooted motivations. Originality This study shows how tourism-dependent communities transition from externally driven forced resilience to sustained, agency-based recovery, extending Tri-Reference Point from individual to community level and integrating it with Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in a tourism-specific framework. This study positions Community Resilience Motivation Model as a process model in which socio-emotional and socio-economic drivers are converted into recovery action through the mediating mechanism of community resilience. Research limitations/implications The model was tested in a single cultural heritage city; cross-cultural applications would strengthen generalisability. Practical implications Policymakers should balance immediate economic support with strategies that build community resilience by strengthening local bonds, social capital and cultural identity to enable self-directed recovery. Social implications Reinforcing community identity and solidarity is as essential as economic revitalisation for recovery, particularly in heritage destinations where livelihoods and cultural meaning are tightly interconnected.
Baltacı et al. (Sat,) studied this question.