The Tourism Adaptation Classification (TAC) framework: An application to New Zealand's Glacier country

Abstract

Alongside growing awareness of the significance of environmental change for glacier regions, and their tourism-dependent communities, is the realization of the need to adapt to changing conditions. Such adaptation is necessary for tourism operators, managers, and planners as well as the visitors themselves, and is part of building resilient tourism systems. This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the possible stages of adaptation in glacier tourism destinations. The Tourism Adaptation Classification (TAC) framework aligns three stages of adaptation (resilience, transition, and transformation) against adaptation strategies implemented by tourism stakeholders and identifies specific characteristics. Using a desk-based case study approach, the framework is illustrated with reference to Glacier Country in New Zealand's Westland/Tai Poutini National Park in relation to three core dimensions of the tourism system: tourism planning and governance; tourism business and operations; and visitor experience.

Climate Change and Geotourism: Impacts, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…The need for adaptation has been recognised mainly in relation to mountain and glacier tourism (Table 1), and a range of adaptation measures have been identified [49,52,60,67,81,157]. In a survey at six glacier sites in the Alps [81], stakeholders identified six main concerns related to management, itineraries, infrastructure, attractiveness, safety, and activity issues, resulting in the adoption of 29 adaptation strategies, categorised under management change, technical change, mitigation measures, diversification, access and itinerary maintenance, heritage development, planning, and the implementation of transformation projects.…”

“…Apart, possibly, from New Zealand [68,69,157], the majority of the measures adopted have largely been reactive and are coping or incremental strategies that enable stakeholders to maintain their activities but do not ensure the longer-term sustainability of glacier tourism [49,81,110]. In the longer term, more transformative strategies will be required [80,81].…”

“…Addressing the challenges will demand collaborative working by the geotourism research community and destination managers and operators, including geoparks. It will require framing geotourism in the wider context of sustainability and resilience and the broader tourism research agenda [157,179,254,258] to achieve a better understanding of geotourists' values, motivations, preferences, destination experiences, responses to destination mitigation strategies, and the environmental, social, and ethical aspects of their travel; see [15,41,42]. It will also require situating geotourism in wider national and international adaptation and mitigation strategies and policies for a just transition to a green economy, net-zero goals, the decarbonisation of travel, and the consequences of these along the whole supply and demand chains.…”