Tourism and the Environment - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 383

The Nature of Climate Change Impacts
on the Tourism Industry and Destinations

There are four broad categories of climate change impacts that will affect tourism destinations, their
competitiveness and sustainability.

1. Direct climatic impacts: Climate is a principal resource for tourism, as it codetermines the

suitability of locations for a wide range of tourist activities, is a principal driver of global seasonality
in tourism demand, and has an important in uence on operating costs, such as heating-cooling,
snow-making, irrigation, food and water supply, and insurance costs. Thus, changes in the length
and quality of climate-dependent tourism seasons (i.e., sun-and-sea or winter sports holidays)
could have considerable implications for competitive relationships between destinations and,
therefore, the pro tability of tourism enterprises.

2. Indirect environmental change impacts: Because environmental conditions are such a critical

resource for tourism, a wide range of climate-induced environmental changes will have profound
effects on tourism at the destination and regional level. Changes in water availability, biodiversity
loss, reduced landscape aesthetic, altered agricultural production (e.g., wine tourism), increased
natural hazards, coastal erosion and inundation, damage to infrastructure, and the increasing
incidence of vector-borne diseases will all impact tourism to varying degrees. UNESCO has also
identi ed several world heritage sites that are critical tourist destinations as being vulnerable to
climate-induced environmental change (e.g., Venice, Italy — sea level rise; Great Barrier Reef,

Australia coral bleaching and mortality; Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, USA and

Canada—glacier retreat; and Chan Chan Archaeological Zone, Peru—El Nino-Southern Oscilla-
tion (ENSO) caused flooding and eroding).

—

3. Impacts of mitigation policies on tourist mobility: National or international mitigation

policies are likely to have an impact on

tourist ows. Theywill lead to an increase in transport costs andmay foster environmental attitudes
that lead tourists to change their travel patterns (e.g., shift transport mode or destination choices).

— that is, policies that seek to reduce GHG emissions —

4. Indirect societal change impacts: Climate change is thought to pose a risk to future economic

growth and to the political stability of some nations. The Stern report, Economics of Climate
Change, concluded that although a global warming of only 1 C might bene t global GDP, greater
climate change would eventually damage economic growth at the global scale, including the stark
conclusion that unmitigated climate change could cause a reduction in consumption per capita of
20 percent later in the twenty- rst century or in the early twenty-second century. 7 Any such
reduction of global GDP due to climate change would reduce the discretionary wealth available to
consumers for tourism and have negative implications for anticipated future growth in tourism;
however, there has been no in-depth interpretation of the Stern report for the tourism sector.

Destination Level Adaptation

It is essential to emphasize that regardless of the nature and magnitude of climate change impacts, all
tourism businesses and destinations will need to adapt to climate change in order to minimize
associated risks and capitalize on new opportunities, in an economically, socially and environmentally
sustainable manner.
Large tour operators who do not own the infrastructure are in a better position to adapt to
changes at destinations because they can respond to clients and demands, and provide information
to in uence clients travel choices. Destination communities and tourism operators with large

investment in immobile capital assets (e.g., hotel, resort complex, marina or casino) have the least
adaptive capacity.

'