Why rural places matter for regional economic resilience: Insights from agritourism in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Research on regional economic resilience has predominantly focused on urban contexts in Europe. This study extends the empirical foundation by examining rural agritourism resilience during the COVID‐19 pandemic in rural Chiang Mai, Thailand. Employing an evolutionary economic geography framework, this research traces the historical development of the region's agritourism sector and draws on 41 in‐depth interviews with local entrepreneurs, community leaders and government authorities. The analysis examines how the regional agritourism economy withstood (maintained operations), adapted (modified tourism infrastructure), and transformed (created novel products) during the pandemic. A multi‐scalar analysis reveals distinct resilience strategies at three levels: individual entrepreneurs, village communities, and the destination. These strategies reflect differential adaptive capacities shaped by historically accumulated asymmetries in financial buffers, knowledge, and networks. The findings demonstrate how place‐based and multi‐scalar factors, operating dynamically over time, produce heterogeneous regional capacities to navigate sudden shock events, offering empirically grounded conceptual insights into regional economic resilience in Southeast Asia and beyond.