Skiing Less Often in a Warmer World: Attitudes of Tourists to Climate Change in an Australian Ski Resort

Abstract

Climate change will affect tourism destinations that are dependent on natural resources, such as snow. Currently there is limited research into attitudes, intentions and actual visitation patterns of skiers in response to reduced snow cover. Therefore the awareness of, and attitudes towards, climate change of 351 ski tourists were assessed in the largest ski resort in Australia in 2007, repeating a survey conducted in 1996. Ninety percent of skiers in 2007 would ski less often in Australian resorts if the next five years had low natural snow, up from 75% of skiers surveyed in 1996: 69% would ski less often, 5% would give up and 16% would ski at the same levels but overseas. Nearly all skiers thought that climate change would affect the ski industry (87% compared with 78% in 1996), and that this would occur sooner than in the 1996 survey. Visitation in a poor snow year (2006, +0.85°C average annual temperature, 54% less natural snow) was -13.6% of the long-term average, indicating poor natural snow resulted in decreased visitation, despite extensive use of snow making. The implications of changes in climate conditions and tourist attitudes for Australian ski resorts are assessed including for snow making and summer tourism.

Protected Areas in an era of global–local change

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Travel, tourism, climate change, and behavioral change: travelers’ perspectives from a developing country, Nigeria

“…While a number of studies have analyzed people's attitudes and understanding of climate change in relation to tourism and travel (Anable, Lane & Kelay, 2006, Becken, 2007Cohen, Higham & Cavaliere, 2011;Hares, Dickinson & Wilkes, 2010;Kempton, 1997;Pickering, Castley & Burtt, 2010;Randles & Mander, 2009), these focus on developed countries, for example, the USA, UK, Norway and New Zealand. Dickinson, Robbins, Filimonau, Hares & Mika (2013) focus on a Polish sample, considered an emerging economy, but there is a gap in knowledge regarding developing countries, especially those vulnerable to climate change.…”

Impact of snow variability on the Swiss winter tourism sector: implications in an era of climate change

“…Another strand of the literature has more specifically dealt with potential and/or actual behavioral adaptations on the demand side (Behringer et al 2000;Hamilton et al 2007;Unbehaun et al 2008;Shih et al 2009;Pickering et al 2010;Dawson et al 2011;Töglhofer et al 2011). Methodologically, these studies rely either on surveys of skiers or on quantitative analyses based on regression techniques.…”