Abstract
Building destination resilience and preparing tourism businesses for disasters requires collaboration with emergency management agencies. This study investigates network formation and development during emergencies in Piopiotahi/Milford Sound and Tāhuna/Queenstown, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Using survey and interview data from tourism and emergency management stakeholders, it employs mixed methods Social Network Analysis to explore collaboration drivers and network structural changes. Findings underscore tourism stakeholders’ pivotal roles in functions such as intelligence, welfare, and logistics. Communication, formal agreements, and business relations have a significant and positive effect on response collaboration, highlighting the importance of cultivating diverse connections and involving tourism stakeholders in disaster planning. Key structural changes include reduced connections and a more distinct core-periphery structure, indicating increased peripheral actor engagement during response. Understanding these dynamics can help policymakers and emergency managers enhance collaboration strategies, thus improving disaster response outcomes.