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42 Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges
Within the WG2 report, there is considerable diversity in how prominently tourism is in the regional
chapters and key geographic gaps on impacts exist. Whereas there are substantial sections dedicated to
tourism in the chapters on Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America, there is hardly any consideration
of tourism in the chapters on Asia and Latin America. Even among the regions with dedicated sections
on tourism, information availability varies substantially. For example, while the impacts of climate
change on tourism are anticipated to be very important in Africa, there are almost no tourism specific
studies available on this continent. Given the regional distribution of global tourism receipts and
relative importance of tourism to the economies to some nations in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia,
these regional gaps need to be redressed in the future. The “Industry, Settlement and Society” chapter
of the report and the “Small Islands” chapter also devoted substantial discussion to tourism. Tourism
is however all but absent in some of the other chapters by WG2, where some discussion could be
expected, for example the chapters on “Human Health”, “Freshwater Resources”, and the critical interlinkages
between “Climate Change and Sustainability”.
Tourism received minimal attention by WG3, with tourism only being mentioned where the potential
impacts of adaptation measures in the tourism sector on emissions (e.g., higher energy consumption
resulting from increased use of air-conditioning) and the potential impacts of mitigation policies are
discussed. The prominence of tourism in overall transport emissions might have been expected to be
acknowledged more explicitly.
Tourism is an activity whose effects are distributed in many economic sectors, such as transport,
accommodation and agriculture. Tourism is also characterised by both the significance of its contribution
to GHG emissions and its substantial overall economic importance. An assessment of emissions from
tourism would thus help to develop mitigation strategies in particular within the critical field of air
transport (see Chapter 11). With minimal discussion of GHG emissions and mitigation within the
tourism sector and very limited discussion of the impacts of climate change on tourism or possible
adaptation strategies within the AR4, there is currently no peer-reviewed, synthetic and worldwide
review of the relationships between climate change and tourism. This report is intended to help close
this information gap.
7.3 Purpose and Scope
This report presents a synthesis of the demonstrable progress made since the Djerba Conference in 2003
on the complex interactions between tourism and global climate change. It summarizes the state of
knowledge about current and future likely impacts of climate change on tourism in diverse destinations
around the world and possible impacts on tourist demand, current levels and trends in GHG emissions
from the tourism sector, and an overview of policy and management responses adopted by the key
stakeholder groups (international organizations, public administrations, the tourism industry) with
respect to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. The report focused primarily on new science
and policy developments that have occurred since the Djerba conference in 2003. Extensive references
are imbedded throughout the report to assist those seeking to acquire further information about particular
case studies or specific research topics. The text is also illustrated with boxes that describe case studies
of impacts or examples of adaptation and mitigation practice from around the world.
The technical report is based on an extensive review of scientific literature and policy and management
responses to climate change and is intended to provide extensive background information for high-level
technical debate and the search of possible courses of action at the Second International Conference
on Climate Change and Tourism (Davos, Switzerland, 1–3 October 2007). The outcomes of the Second
International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism and the Ministerial Summit in London
(13 November 2007), were transmitted by UNWTO to the UN Climate Change Summit in Bali, Indonesia
(3-14 December 2007).
UNWTO, 9 July 2008