Impacts of climate and demographic change on future skier demand and its economic consequences – Evidence from a ski resort in the German Alps

Witting, Maximilian; Schmude, Jürgen

doi:10.1016/j.jort.2019.03.002

Cited by 32 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This is particularly the case during the Christmas season, which is still of great economic importance. This will lead to high turnover losses in the next decades (Witting & Schmude, 2019). For St. Englmar, declining operating days and OSDs have been estimated until the 2050s seasons (Berghammer & Schmude, 2014;Soboll & Dingeldey, 2012).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is in line with the analogue study results of Pickering (2011), Rutty et al (2017) and Steiger (2011b), who reinforce that especially low lying and rather small winter sport destinations may face severe impact. How this affects key actors involved in winter tourism economically has been analysed for a ski area in Germany (Witting & Schmude, 2019). Winter sport destinations with favourable conditions (e.g., due to higher mean altitude or high snowmaking coverage), in contrast, may gain market share and thus create higher turnover (e.g., Pons et al, 2014;Soboll & Dingeldey, 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioural change or “business as usual”? Characterising the reaction behaviour of winter (sport) tourists to climate change in two German destinations

Witting

Bischof

Schmude

2020

Journal of Tourism Research

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Climate change affects both the supply and the demand side of winter tourism. So far, few demand‐side studies exist in the field of climate change impact research. Those investigating the tourists' behavioural response to climate change concentrated exclusively on ski tourists in various countries, except for the highly vulnerable German market. This study conducted a survey (n = 751) in two German destinations to investigate the reaction behaviour of winter tourists to climate change, differentiated according to day and overnight guests. Findings show that not only weather, snow and operating conditions determine the reaction behaviour, but also lifestyle or sociodemographic aspects.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural change or “business as usual”? Characterising the reaction behaviour of winter (sport) tourists to climate change in two German destinations

Witting

Bischof

Schmude

2020

Journal of Tourism Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Here, April is excluded, despite its snow accumulation potential, due to the likely backyard behavior of demand, that is, the effects of one's home weather conditions on her/his ski trip decision (Hamilton et al 2007), which could reduce visitation down to as low as 0.5% of the total visits as in the case of Turkey (Demiroglu 2016). Regarding the skiable snow depth, a minimum requirement is identified as 30 cm for a prepared ski slope (Witmer 1986;Abegg et al 2007), where grooming operations compress the density of snow to around 450 kg/ m 3 (Fauve et al 2002 in Mayer andSteiger 2013: 176). In other words, snow cover with a snow-water equivalent (SWE) of 135 kg/m 2 could satisfy the minimal conditions for SR, as SWE is a product of snow density and snow depth.…”

Section: Specification Of the Scimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of the highly weather-dependent ski tourism sector, which is regarded as the most studied type of tourism under a changing climate (Scott et al 2012), the 100-day rule (Witmer 1986) of natural snow reliability (Abegg 1996), could be, albeit single faceted, perceived as the first indexing attempt to assess the climatic suitability of ski areas, resorts, and destinations and the relevant impacts of climate change on them. The rule indicates that climatic suitability (and economic viability) for ski areas/resorts/destinations is only possible when a minimum of 100 days/season of snow cover of a minimum 30-cm depth is present.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ski Climate Index (SCI): fuzzification and a regional climate modeling application for Turkey

et al. 2020

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Climatology has increasingly become an important discipline for understanding tourism and recreation, especially in the era of contemporary climate change. Climate indices, in this respect, have been useful tools to yield the climatic attractiveness of tourism destinations as well as in understanding their altering suitability to various tourism types along with the changing climates. In this study, a major gap for a comprehensive climate index tailored for ski tourism is aimed to be fulfilled. For this purpose, initially the Ski Climate Index (SCI) is specified, based on fuzzy logic and as informed by literature and through extensive co-creation with the ski tourism industry experts, and applied to an emerging destination, Turkey, based on regional climate modeling projections. The index is designed as a combination of snow reliability and aesthetics and comfort facets, the latter of which includes sunshine, wind, and thermal comfort conditions. Results show that the Eastern Anatolia region is climatically the most suitable area for future development, taking account of the overriding effects of natural and technical snow reliability. Future research suggestions include the incorporation of more components into the index as well as technical recommendations to improve its application and validation.

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“…Mountainous areas such as the Alps attract millions of international tourists and sports practitioners. Skier days (understood as initial entry to a ski resort, irrespective of the activity) are often used as a metric to indicate the popularity of winter sport regions [1]. For Austria, 54.6 million skier days were recorded for the season 2017/2018 according to the Professional Association of Austrian Cable Cars [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mortality in Different Mountain Sports Activities Primarily Practiced in the Winter Season—A Narrative Review

Niedermeier

Gatterer

Pocecco

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Annually, millions of people engage in mountain sports activities all over the world. These activities are associated with health benefits, but concurrently with a risk for injury and death. Knowledge on death rates is considered important for the categorization of high-risk sports in literature and for the development of effective preventive measures. The death risk has been reported to vary across different mountain sports primarily practiced in the summer season. To complete the spectrum, the aim of the present review is to compare mortality rates across different mountain sports activities primarily practiced in winter. A comprehensive literature search was performed on the death risk (mortality) during such activities, i.e., alpine (downhill) skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, ski touring, and sledging. With the exception of ski touring (4.4 deaths per 1 million exposure days), the mortality risk was low across different winter sports, with small activity-specific variation (0.3–0.8 deaths per 1 million exposure days). Traumatic (e.g., falls) and non-traumatic (e.g., cardiac death) incidents and avalanche burial in ski tourers were the predominant causes of death. Preventive measures include the improvement of sport-specific skills and fitness, the use of protective gear, well-targeted and intensive training programs concerning avalanche hazards, and sports-medical counseling for elderly and those with pre-existing diseases.

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Impacts of climate and demographic change on future skier demand and its economic consequences – Evidence from a ski resort in the German Alps

Cited by 32 publications

References 30 publications

Behavioural change or “business as usual”? Characterising the reaction behaviour of winter (sport) tourists to climate change in two German destinations

Behavioural change or “business as usual”? Characterising the reaction behaviour of winter (sport) tourists to climate change in two German destinations

The Ski Climate Index (SCI): fuzzification and a regional climate modeling application for Turkey

Mortality in Different Mountain Sports Activities Primarily Practiced in the Winter Season—A Narrative Review

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