Climate change conditions the sustainability of coastal destinations. This paper looks at the physical conditions that determine exposure and sensitivity to and risk from climate change and explores the sociopolitical contextual factors that determine the vulnerability of destinations. We define a destination's vulnerability to climate change as being a reduction in its attractiveness caused by climate change combined with the consequences of adaptation and mitigation strategies. To be more specific, this paper aims to discuss the linkage between policymaking and the vulnerability of coastal destinations to climate change. We look at how this vulnerability is determined by decision-making, policies and strategies and propose an innovative analytical framework to assess vulnerability using a policy analysis approach. It is our intention to combine a content analysis of policy documents with an analysis of the perceptions and opinions of the stakeholders that influence decision-making. The paper deals with the complex, multiple, dynamic and fuzzy attributes that characterize all the items that make up this kind of research: climate change (phenomenon), vulnerability (variable), policy analysis (method), policy contents and stakeholder perceptions (indicators), coastal destinations (territorial system) and tourism (activity and policy).
La pertinencia de las políticas, planes y estrategias adoptadas en respuesta al cambio climático, condicionan la capacidad de los destinos turísticos para adaptarse a los nuevos escenarios y para mitigar los impactos negativos de la actividad turística. Los stakeholders influyen en la toma de decisiones sobre dichas políticas, planes y estrategias, y por tanto determinan la vulnerabilidad y la sostenibilidad futura de los destinos turísticos. El análisis de sus percepciones contribuye a mejorar la gestión de los destinos ante el cambio climático. Mediante entrevistas a los stakeholders se pone de manifiesto la elevada influencia que el cambio climático ejerce sobre la actividad turística en la Riviera Maya, que de forma urgente debe hacer frente al aumento del nivel del mar, los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y el blanqueamiento de los corales. Para lograr el éxito de las estrategias, es crucial identificar los actores clave del proceso y superar las limitaciones económicas, la falta de concienciación y la coordinación deficiente entre actores e instituciones.
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