New Zealand’s public conservation lands and waters– including its 13 national parks and other protected natural resource areas – represent a complex social-ecological system, involving interplay between people and places. Many parks and protected areas are dynamic biophysical environments with multiple, naturally occurring hazards, but they are also highly valued as settings for outdoor recreation and tourism. This intersection between recreational use and natural hazard potential raises an important research question, as well as a management challenge: To what extent are visitors to these conservation areas aware of and appropriately prepared for the hazards they may encounter? This study adopts a resilience lens to interpret data collected via a nation-wide online survey of outdoor recreationists’ preparedness for, and responses to natural hazards in New Zealand’s conservation areas. Implications for increasing the resilience of tourists and the broader tourism social-ecological system are discussed
