Product diversification, product relationships, and the ecomic resilience of Libyan tourist destinations.

Tourism product diversification becomes important not only to attract wider a range of tourists and increase market-share but also to ensure adaptation and resilience to enable tourist destinations to effectively prepare for crises. This study examines whether tourism product diversification enhances adaptability in order to make tourist destinations in Libya more resilient. The study examines the diverse patterns of tourism product development. It does this in relation to the patterns of use of alternative and mass tourism products, and the patterns of relationships between these products, for the cases of Tripoli and Alkhoms.Three frameworks were developed deductively in order to understand and evaluate these research issues. They were applied then to assess the patterns of development, the relationships between tourism products, and their influence on inherent economic resilience. Primary qualitative data were collected by means of in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with respondents from the supply and demand sides of the tourism industry. Observation and various other secondary data sources were also utilized. The collected data were critically analyzed and interpreted in relation to the themes identified in the frameworks.It was found that diverse patterns of development and relationships evolved between the tourism products. Alkhoms depended on promoting two concentrated types of tourism products that are consumed in different seasons by completely separated sectors (domestic and international tourists). By contrast, Tripoli has developed a wider range of tourism products enabling it to attract larger numbers of tourists from both sectors, and thus it was less influenced by seasonality and forces of decline. In addition, spatial proximity and thematic features have encouraged more businesses - related to tourism to agglomerate near to Tripoli's tourist attractions, resulting in stronger linkages of compatibility and complementarity between its tourist attractions. Such agglomeration has led to more job generation and an improved ability to adapt to change, resulting in greater inherent economic resilience. In contrast, in Alkhoms, the spatial proximities between the main two dissimilar attractions have not been properly exploited. This has caused them to be managed and marketed in isolation, and resulted in Alkhoms having less resilience in the face of seasonality effects and other forces of change. It is argued that destinations that enjoy a wider range and scale of tourism products can develop ways of collaborating that could increase the flexibility and adaptability of the tourism offerings. This can mean they are better placed to meet the changeable and sophisticated needs of tourists, thereby nurturing economic resilience.