|ognizant Communication Corporation|
TOURISM REVIEW INTERNATIONAL
An Interdisciplinary Journal
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1
Tourism Review International, Volume 12, pp.5-12
1544-2721/08 $60.00 + .00
Copyright © 2008 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
The Place of Tourism in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: A Review
Bas Amelung,1 Alvaro Moreno,1 and Daniel Scott2
1International Centre for Integrated Assessment and Sustainable
Development (ICIS), Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
2Canada Research Chair in Global Change and Tourism, University of Waterloo, Canada
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published its fourth assessment report (AR4), representing the current state of knowledge about the causes and impacts of climate change as well as possible options for adaptation and mitigation. This article reviews the place of tourism in the AR4. Clearly, tourism has been given more space in comparison to the previous report. Nevertheless, substantial regional imbalances in available knowledge are revealed, as well as a virtual absence of information about the contribution of tourism to climate change. The article ends with a discussion of several issues that demand a priority position for tourism on the research agenda for the coming years.
Key words: IPCC; Climate change; Tourism impacts
Address correspondence to Bas Amelung, ICIS, Universiteit Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands. Tel: 43 3882659; Fax: 43 3884916; E-mail: email@example.com
Climate Change Risk Appraisal in the Austrian Ski Industry
Christoph Wolfsegger,1 Stefan Gössling,2 and Daniel Scott3
1Lund University Center of Sustainability Studies, Lund University,
2Department of Service Management, Lund University, Sweden
3Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, Canada
Ski tourism is an economically and culturally important industry in many parts of Europe. A growing number of studies in Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia have concluded that climate change has potentially serious implications for the sustainability of ski operations by reducing the average length of ski seasons and, where applicable, increasing snowmaking costs. To date, however, the climate change risk awareness and adaptive responses of stakeholders in the ski industry have not been examined. A survey of managers at low elevation ski areas in Austria was undertaken to explore their perceptions of climate change (past and future), how climate change had/will affect their operations, and their adaptive responses (past and planned). The results indicate that climate change is not perceived to be a serious threat to ski operations and that with technological adaptation, principally snowmaking, ski area managers believe they will be able to effectively cope with climate change in the 21st century. The consequences of these perceptions for the future operation of these ski areas are discussed and conclusions drawn for the future of ski tourism in Austria.
Key words: Climate change; Technological adaptation; Adaptive capacity; Perception; Ski resorts; Winter tourism; Europe; Austria
Address correspondence to Dr. Stefan Gössling, Department of Service Management, Lund University, Box 882, 251 08 Helsingborg, Sweden. Tel: 42-356629; Fax: 42-356660; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Engaging Tourism Stakeholders in the Development of Climate Change Decision-Support Tools: A Case Study From Michigan, USA
Sarah Nicholls and Donald F. Holecek
Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies, and Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Projection of the potential impacts of climate variability and change on tourism destinations is heavily dependent on the ability to first model present-day relationships between tourism activity and weather conditions. However, current understanding of these relationships is often based more on assumption and anecdotal evidence than hard empirical data. In particular, models that function at the same fine temporal and spatial scales as variations in weather characteristics typically occur are especially lacking in the literature. This article focuses on the processes and associated challenges underlying the development of Web-based decision-support tools designed to enable tourism enterprises in Michigan to project the potential impacts of climate variability and change on their businesses. An absolutely essential component of this study was the engagement of tourism stakeholders in model development. However, this process was fraught with difficulties, from industry members' perceptions of the relevance and importance of the issue, to the acquisition of appropriate data and development of useful and comprehensible tools. The models constructed enable tourism stakeholders to more rigorously evaluate the vulnerability of their enterprises to future variability and change in Michigan's climate, thereby encouraging them to consider suitable adaptation strategies in a more timely and proactive manner.
Key words: Tourism stakeholders; Climate variability and change; Decision-support; Michigan
Address correspondence to Sarah Nicholls, Departments of Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies, and Geography, Michigan State University, 131 Natural Resources Building, East Lansing, MI 48824-1222, USA. Tel: 517 432 0319; Fax: 517 432 3597; E-mail: email@example.com
Exploring Potential Visitor Response to Climate-Induced Environmental Changes in Canada's Rocky Mountain National Parks
Daniel Scott, Brenda Jones, and Jasmina Konopek
Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
The scientific community and park professionals recognize that climate change could have a substantial impact on the natural landscape of mountain parks worldwide, with important implications for conservation policy and park planning. Little is known however about how tourists may respond to these projected environmental changes. To explore this question in the context of Canada's Rocky Mountain national parks, a visitor survey was administered (n = 809) in two national parks: Banff and Waterton Lakes. The environmental change scenarios constructed for the early and mid-decades of the 21st century were found to have minimal influence on intention to visit. The environmental change scenario for the latter decades, under a high emission climate change scenario, was found to have a negative effect on intention to visit, as 36% of respondents indicated they would visit the parks less often and 25% not at all. Visitors most likely to be negatively affected by climate-induced environmental change were nature-based tourists from overseas, motivated by the opportunity to view mountain landscapes and wildlife. The hitherto largely overlooked conceptual and methodological challenges of understanding how tourists may respond to multidecadal environmental changes induced by global climate change in any tourism setting is also discussed.
Key words: Canada; Climate change; Global environmental change; National parks; Visitation
Address correspondence to Daniel Scott, Ph.D., Canada Research Chair in Global Change & Tourism, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Tel: 519-888-4567, ext. 5497; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
How Climate Change is Considered in Sustainable Tourism Policies: A Case of the Mediterranean Islands of Malta and Mallorca
Rachel Dodds1 and Ilan Kelman2
1School of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Ryerson
University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo, Norway
Mediterranean island case studies of Calvià, Mallorca, and Malta are used to examine how sustainable tourism policies do, do not, and should factor in climate change in order to reduce the vulnerabilities of the tourism sector to climate change. Data were collected from key actors responsible for policy implementation as well as tourism policy and planning documents from Malta's and Calvià's tourism industries. Tourism in both sites has significant vulnerabilities to climate change, but climate change was rarely stated as being an important tourism issue. That was the case even when policies include measures that contribute to climate change adaptation, although those policies were implemented for reasons other than climate change. Six policy suggestions are made for adapting to climate change in the case studies' tourism industries: Enacting effective control systems to ensure that policies are implemented and monitored; improving education and awareness on climate change and its potential impacts; placing sustainable tourism and climate change within broader policy frameworks; implementing economic incentives to encourage adjustment strategies; using accountable, flexible, and participatory approaches for addressing climate change in sustainable tourism policies; and filling in policy gaps while further integrating policies. Placing climate change into wider contexts reveals that some aspects of tourism might not be sustainable for small islands. Climate change should therefore be one dimension among many topics within sustainable tourism policies. That approach would provide impetus and support for pursuing strategies that should also be implemented for reasons other than climate change.
Key words: Adaptation; Climate change; Calvià; Malta; Mediterranean; Policy; Vulnerability
Address correspondence to Dr. Rachel Dodds, School of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3 Canada. Tel: 416-979-5000, ext. 7227; E-mail: email@example.com
Misperceptions of Climate Change Damage Coastal Tourism: Case Study of Byron Bay, Australia
International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast Australia
Local politics at Byron Bay on Australia's east coast have led to misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the likely effects of climate change on sea-level and coastal erosion. A voting bloc of self proclaimed "green" members of the local government authority (LGA) has adopted policies and planning instruments that have affected tourism by: placing severe and irrational restrictions on development of residential and holiday accommodation; reducing the opportunities for holiday letting; increasing rates and costs for businesses that provide services to tourists; and creating community division and dissent, which drives away higher yield family tourists. This is occurring even though the LGA acknowledges the town's dependence on tourism. The key issue is that the LGA has prevented beachfront landowners from protecting their own properties against erosion, which the LGA now claims, incorrectly, to be due to climate change but which is in fact caused by a groyne built to protect facilities owned or managed by the LGA itself. Addressing this erosion is completely straightforward from a technical perspective, but is prevented by political power plays. Through this political mechanism, misperceptions of climate change have hence damaged the town's tourism industry and investment, which have moved to neighboring local government areas.
Key words: Climate change damage; Misperceptions; Coastal tourism; Australia
Address correspondence to Ralf Buckley, Director, International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. Tel: 7 5552 8675; Fax: 7 5552 8895; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org