The Influence of Culture on Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

Abstract

This study investigates cultural differences in tourist preferences for climate change adaptation strategies of cross-country skiers in Austria and Finland. We used the value orientation approach to empirically test whether this concept is sensitive to skiers’ climate change adaptation preferences in the two respective countries. The comparisons between the two countries were made even more specific with three identical motivation-based segments that accounted for heterogeneity within the respective samples. All comparisons were based on either regular survey questions or on the results of a choice experiment. The results reveal significant differences between skiers for the overall national samples, as well as for numerous comparisons between specific segments. Thus, we conclude that adaptation strategy planning should consider cultural differences and that the transferability of strategies even within the western cultures of Europe is limited.

Climate change acknowledgement and responses of summer (glacier) ski visitors in Norway

“…Those referring to cross-country skiing as a tradition, "the social type", were the first to quit during warming trouble (Landauer et al, 2009), while demographic factors such as female gender, lower socioeconomic status, and urbanity increased skiers' sensitivity to climate change (Pouta et al, 2009). Further studies by Landauer, Haider, et al (2014;Landauer, Pröbstl, et al, 2012) also revealed that behavioural adaptation was strongly tied to national cultures, as in the case of a Finnish-Austrian comparison, in which it was clear that the Austrian crosscountry skiers were more accepting of the costs of supplier adaptation with respect to their Finnish counterparts. Regarding alpine skiing, Falk and Vieru (2017) showed that the demand could decline by 5-23%, depending on the region, during low snowfall years.…”

“…The country-specific examples of climate change and ski tourism demand research have been carried out in various destinations such as Australia (König, 1998;Pickering, Castley, & Burtt, 2010), New Zealand (Hopkins, 2014;Hopkins, Higham, & Becken, 2013;Prince, 2010), the US (Dawson et al, 2011;Vivian, 2011), Austria (Landauer, Haider, & Pröbstl-Haider, 2014;Landauer, Pröbstl, & Haider, 2012;Unbehaun, Pröbstl, & Haider, 2008), Switzerland (Behringer, Buerki, & Fuhrer, 2000), Germany (Dehnhardt & Kalisch, 2010), Slovenia (Vrtacnik-Garbas, 2007), and Finland (Falk & Vieru, 2017;Landauer, Haider, et al, 2014;Landauer, Pröbstl, et al, 2012;Landauer, Sievänen, & Neuvonen, 2009;Pouta, Neuvonen, & Sievänen, 2009).…”

Does Climate Change Influence Guest Loyalty at Alpine Winter Destinations?

“…This is why Alpine winter vacationists from Germany were chosen for this study. Many studies have already discussed the impact of climate change on Alpine winter destination supply (Steiger and Mayer [6], Uhlmann et al [4], Berghammer and Schmude [51]) as well as on demand (Steiger [52], Landauer et al [53], Steiger [54]). Many of these studies assume that climate change is one single factor influencing destination choice and loyalty.…”

Out of the city – but how and where? A mode-destination choice model for urban–rural tourism trips in Austria

“…They are, however, limited to the availability of aggregated statistics regarding trip and destination data. The second group of models are discrete choice models (Landauer et al, 2014). They are usually dealing with (i) stated preference (SP) data (usually generated through choice experiments with hypothetical destination features), which are (ii) not specified in real space, and (iii) disaggregate.…”