Global environmental crises, armed conflicts, and large-scale infrastructure disruptions increasingly challenge the foundations of sustainable tourism, particularly in destinations experiencing prolonged instability and environmental loss. This study examines how sustainable tourism can be reconfigured in crisis-affected destinations, using Ukraine as an empirical case. The aim of the study is to explore how strategic communication, community engagement, and digital memory practices contribute to the recovery of tourism destinations affected by environmental degradation and limited physical accessibility. The research is based on a qualitative design, combining semi-structured expert interviews (N = 15), thematic analysis, and secondary data analysis. The findings demonstrate that environmental degradation in crisis contexts operates as a systemic destabilizing factor affecting not only ecological conditions but also institutional capacity, destination identity, and tourist trust. In such conditions, recovery cannot be reduced to physical restoration alone. Instead, community-based eco-revitalization, strategic communication, and digital memory emerge as key mechanisms supporting the continuity of tourism functions and the reconstruction of destination narratives. The study conceptualizes digital memory as a socio-cultural process that enables the preservation and reinterpretation of tourism destinations under conditions of disruption. It further highlights the role of stakeholders as communicative agents in sustaining trust and coordinating recovery processes The results contribute to the development of adaptive models of sustainable tourism and offer practical insights for managing tourism in crisis-affected and post-conflict destinations.
