Climate Change and Tourism - UNEP - Division of Technology ...

9.2 Adaptation to Climate Change
9.2.1 Overview
UNWTO, 9 July 2008
Impacts and Adaptation at Tourism Destinations
“It is meaningless to study the consequences of climate change without considering the ranges of
adaptive responses.”
Adger and Kelly (1999)
The IPCC 412 indicated that the need for societies around the world and economic sectors like tourism
to adapt to climate change in the decades ahead is inescapable. The inevitability of the need to adapt to
future climate change and the realization that adaptation is occurring today partially explains why there
has been an explosion of research and policy interest in adaptation to climate change over the past five
years. 413 Adaptation has figured less prominently in climate change research on tourism than in some
other economic sectors (e.g., agriculture) and remains an important knowledge gap, particularly with
respect to destinations. 414
Adaptation to climate change refers to an adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual
or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.
Adaptation can be pursued by societies, institutions, individuals, governments. It is motivated by
economic, social or environmental drivers, by many means, for example social activities, market
activities, local or global interventions. 415 The implementation of adaptation measures in the tourism
sector should consider the time horizon of climate change impacts which is illustrated in Figure 13.1.
The information requirements, policy changes and investments that are required for effective adaptation
by tourism destinations will require decades in some cases, and therefore the process of adaptation
needs to commence in the very near future for destinations anticipated to be among those impacted by
mid-century.
Figure 9.9 Relative adaptive capacity of major tourism sub-sectors
Tourists Tour operators, transport
providers (railways, airlines),
travel agents
Hotels/resorts,
attraction
operators,
communities
HIGH Adaptive capacity LOW
Source: Scott, D. and Jones, B. (2006a)
The dynamic nature of the tourism industry and its ability to cope with a range of recent shocks,
including SARS, terrorism attacks in a number of nations, or the Asian tsunami, suggests a relatively high
climate change adaptive capacity within the tourism industry overall. The capacity to adapt to climate
change is thought to vary between the sub-sectors of the tourism industry. 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421 Figure
9.9 illustrates the relative adaptive capacity of major sub-sectors. Tourists have the greatest adaptive
capacity (depending three key resources; money, knowledge and time) with relative freedom to avoid
destinations impacted by climate change or shifting the timing of travel to avoid unfavourable climate
conditions. The implications of their potential adaptations to climate change are discussed in Chapter 10.
Suppliers of tourism services and tourism operators at specific destinations have less adaptive capacity.
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 demands and provide information to influence clients’
travel choices. Destination communities and tourism operators with large investments in immobile
capital assets (e.g., hotel, resort complex, marina, or casino) have the least adaptive capacity.
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