Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tourism and climate change
Tourism is both a climate-sensitive sector, which will be affected by changes
to the climate in the future, and a contributor to climate change. There has
been awareness of climate sensitivity in key sectors of the tourism industry for
some time. For example, much research has focused on climate change impacts
on Alpine ski resorts due to reduced snow and shorter ski seasons (see, for
example, Moen and Fredman, 2007; Scott et al, 2003). However, it has taken
the sector longer to address tourism as a significant contributor to climate
change through its use of fossil fuels. Now, a growing body of studies high-
light the high-carbon nature of tourism. Thus, while tourism is likely to be
affected by climate change, it is also part of the problem and will therefore
also be impacted by climate change mitigation measures implemented by
governments.
To summarize, the issues for tourism are three-fold and interrelated:
1 Climate change will directly affect the tourism resource base through long-
term changing climatic conditions, unusual weather patterns and sea-level
changes, among other things.
2 Tourism is part of the problem and a cause of climate change through use
of fossil fuel and production of GHG emissions.
3 As a result, international and national climate change mitigation measures
will impact tourism activities indirectly through regulatory processes and
fiscal measures.
This has triggered a recent wave of research examining: levels of GHG emis-
sions associated with travel (see, for example, Becken, 2002; Ceron and
Dubois, 2007; Peeters et al, 2007), accommodation (see, for example, Becken
and Patterson, 2006; Gössling, 2002) and activities (see, for example, Becken
and Simmons, 2002; Chan and Lam, 2003; Gössling, 2002); industry and
tourist understanding of the issues (Barr et al, 2010; Becken, 2004; Hares et
al, 2010); and mitigation and adaptation strategies (Gössling et al, 2002;
Hunter and Shaw, 2007; World Wildlife Fund-UK, 2002). To date there have
been various, rather limited, attempts within the tourism sector to reduce the
tourism carbon footprint (see, for example, Caribsave, 2009; South West
Climate Change Impacts Partnership, 2008; The Travel Foundation, 2006),
but overall emissions from tourism are growing (Peeters et al, 2006).
Climate change impact on the tourism resource
As awareness of climate change has grown, the most pressing issue for tourism
has been the impact on climate-sensitive resource bases. Early studies exam-
ined the potential, and actual, changes in tourism flows due to changing
climatic conditions. Such studies have related to the likelihood of warmer
summers both in destination areas (that are now potentially too hot for visi-
tors) and origin market regions (potentially improved tourism conditions).
They also related to the impact of reduced snow cover due to observed
poor snow conditions over several seasons (see, for example, Breiling and
Charamza, 1999). Studies examined specific regions, and a number of
