Community Resilience and Rural Ecotourism in Odisha: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review

Abstract

Although CBET has attracted considerable attention from policymakers and innovated through grass-root efforts, the relationship between community resilience and rural ecotourism in Odisha is still rather under-theorised. To bridge the gap, this study is guided by the PRISMA 2020 protocol (Page et al., 2021) to synthesize the empirical and theoretical literature on the role played by rural ecotourism in enhancing or weakening community resilience in Odisha, which is a highly vulnerable but culturally diverse and ecologically endowed state. The comprehensive search was conducted on Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar from 2010 to 2025. From 1,472 papers extracted via database searching, 59 studies were selected for a qualitative synthesis after screening. Applying thematic analysis based on resilience theory (Folke et al., 2010) and sustainable livelihoods framework (Scoones, 2009), it was found that rural ecotourism affects four dimensions of resilience, namely economic diversification, social and institutional capacity, environmental stewardship, and adaptive capacity to shocks such as COVID-19 and climate variability. It is found from empirical literature in Western Odisha (Pujar & Nihar, 2024), Mayurbhanj (Mohanty, 2025), Chilika Lake (Samal & Dash, 2025) and numerous nature camp initiatives (Behera & Deb, 2024; Deb & Behera, 2025) that although ecotourism could enhance the capabilities of communities, power imbalances, poor benefit distribution, lack of institutional coordination and educational programs are constant constraints leading to diluted resilience outputs. In addition, the review highlights that there are policies like Swadesh Darshan 2.0 (Government of India, 2025) and Go Homestay portal at a state level (UNI India, 2026) that have created conducive environments; however, the process of conversion to tangible resilience is patchy and inconsistent. A theoretical model showing the association between tourism related resilience factors and the broader concept of community resilience and a number of propositions are provided to serve as a direction for further research.