This article constructs one index system of economic resilience, measures the economic resilience index, and investigates whether tourism stimulates economic recovery following the Wenchuan earthquake shock. The empirical results show that the economic resilience index (ERI) using the TOPSIS method presents an increasing trend for all the disaster-affected counties from 2008 to 2016, indicating that the economy in all the counties continues to recover from the Wenchuan earthquake; however, there is a large spatial variability amongst them. Most counties with a tourism-based economic model have lower resilience index but higher average growth rate than those without. The effect of tourism on economic resilience utilizing Quantile regression method shows that the coefficients on tourism specialization vary across the quantiles of the economic resilience index, indicating the existence of a nonlinear tourism-growth nexus.

To examine whether tourism can effectively stimulate economic growth following a disaster shock, we apply a panel threshold regression technique to test the threshold effect of tourism development on economic growth of the 36 Wenchuan earthquake-affected counties in 2008–2016. The empirical results using the panel fixed-effects model show that tourism significantly contributes to economic growth, supporting the validity of the tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH) for the disaster-affected destinations. The results of the panel threshold regression model also indicate a threshold effect of tourism development on economic growth, implying that counties with different conditions of tourism specialization and industrial structure experience different impacts on the tourism-growth nexus. Specifically, the estimated coefficients of tourism on economic growth decrease with the levels of tourism specialization and industrial structure exceeding the threshold value. Based on the Tourism Area Life Cycle theory (TALC), we further divide the 36 disaster-stricken counties into six types based on the evolution of tourism specialization: Exploration-stage type, involvement-stage type, transition-stage type, development-stage type, consolidation-stage type, and stagnation-stage type. The empirical findings and managerial implications discussed are generally applicable to policymakers seeking new ways to invigorate the economy in other disaster-affected destinations.

This paper establishes one comprehensive index system and investigates the coupling coordination between tourism development and economic growth of Beichuan County following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, as well as examines the causal relationship. The results of the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) illustrate that the coordinating level of tourism development and economic growth increases in 2001–2017, with strong fluctuation in 2008. The causal results using unit root test, Cointegration test, and Grange causal test show that tourism can significantly promote economic growth in 2008–2017. The outcomes may be attributed to the disaster shock, macro-policy and government-led reconstruction mode. Lastly, the theoretical and practical implications for policymakers are provided.