International tourism and climate change

Abstract

Tourism is a major global economic sector that is undergoing tremendous growth in emerging economies and is often touted as salient for development and poverty alleviation in developing countries. Tourism is recognized as a highly climate‐sensitive sector, one that is also strongly influenced by environmental and socioeconomic change influenced by climate change, and is also a growing contributor to anthropogenic climate change. This article outlines the complex interrelationships between climate change and the multiple components of the international tourism system. Five focal themes that have developed within the literature on the consequences of climate change for tourism are then critically reviewed: climatic change and temporal and geographic shifts in tourism demand, climate‐induced environmental change and destination competitiveness within three major market segments (winter sports tourism, coastal tourism, and nature‐based tourism), and mitigation policy developments and future tourist mobility. The review highlights the differential vulnerability of tourism destinations and that the resultant changes in competitiveness and sustainability will transform some international tourism markets. Feedbacks throughout the tourism system mean that all destinations will need to adapt to the risks and opportunities posed by climate change and climate policy. While notable progress has been made in the last decade, a number of important knowledge gaps in each of the major impact areas, key regional knowledge gaps, and both tourist and tourism operator perceptions of climate change risks and adaptive capacity indicate that the tourism sector is not currently well prepared for the challenges of climate change. WIREs Clim Change 2012. doi: 10.1002/wcc.165 This article is categorized under: Climate and Development > Decoupling Emissions from Development

Impact of snow variability on the Swiss winter tourism sector: implications in an era of climate change

“…This effect is however uncertain in the long run since the most vulnerable ski areas (e.g. the lower lying ones) are generally highly valued by families and their closure may also prevent the renewal of generations of skiers (Scott et al 2012).…”

“…The number will drop to respectively 142, 129, and 78 with the aforementioned increases in temperature. However, local scale modeling studies conducted in other ski regions (mainly in North America), which derive ski season length and snowmaking requirements under a warmer climate, consistently point to more moderate impacts (Scott et al 2012). The strength of these studies compared to the previous ones is that they take into account snowmaking, whose increasing production and capacity improvement could significantly contribute to maintaining the ski season length (Scott et al 2003(Scott et al , 2008Steiger 2010).…”

Destructive creation: capital accumulation and the structural violence of tourism

“…The tourist industry heavily depends on and hence highly stimulates the development of travel infrastructure and concomitant forms of transportation, much of which has negative structural impacts on the environment, especially on climate change (Stroebel, 2014). While this form of producing waste has been well researched (see Scott, G€ ossling, & Hall, 2012), it is not often framed as a structural form of violence. This, we argue, is because of the fact that tourism as capital À as value in progress À has transportation, infrastructure and the growth of these as its absolute sine-qua-non.…”

The Effect of Seasonal Climatic Anomalies on Zoo Visitation in Toronto (Canada) and the Implications for Projected Climate Change

“…It was then possible to provide predictions concerning when these climatic anomalies may potentially become climate normals in the future, under projected climate change. It has been suggested by Scott et al [26] and Gössling et al [32] that this approach is a useful tool for climate change impact assessment since it captures both supply and demand side adaptation to anomalous climatic conditions. …”