The spatial and temporal resilience of the tourism and outdoor recreation industries in the United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Accurately quantifying industry resilience is essential to devising effective recovery strategies. Previous research into industry resilience has either quantified the concept with single metrics aggregated across large geographies (e.g., visitation) or used metrics comparing the relative concentration of an industry within a region to the national average (e.g., location quotients). The former set of metrics prohibits spatially targeted recovery efforts while the latter fails during national crises. We propose the measurement of tourism and outdoor recreation industry resilience to COVID-19 based on growth rates in employment, wages, and establishments using publicly accessible time-series data on all counties in the United States. We use these indicators to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of industry resilience across the country. The indicators can serve as a useful reference for diagnosing and monitoring industry resilience as well as developing targeted policies, programs, and promotion efforts that facilitate more localized response efforts.