The vulnerability of beach tourism to climate change—an index approach

Abstract

The attractiveness of a region for touristic activities depends strongly on the local weather and climate. This paper analyses the vulnerability of the beach tourism sector towards climate change by means of an index approach on a country level. A vulnerability framework for the tourism sector is developed and on its basis, indicators are defined for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. A transparent index approach, including a robustness analysis with multiple transformation methods and weighting sets, yields an assessment of the overall relative vulnerability of the beach tourism sector in 51 countries. Aggregate results on an annual level are presented as a starting point for a more detailed comparison of countries based on the individual indicators. The important limitations regarding the availability of accurate indicators as well as the concept of vulnerability itself are discussed. Despite these limitations, the present study contributes to integrating the numerous direct as well as indirect effects climate change may have on beach tourism.

Socio-economic Impacts—Recreation

“…Even so, until 2012 few studies had addressed the topic of coastal tourism and climate change (Becken 2013). Despite some studies for the Caribbean or Mediterranean Sea and a few other beach or island regions (Nicholls and Hoozemans 1996;Lohmann 2002;Giupponi and Shechter 2003;Nicholls and Klein 2003;Perry 2005Perry , 2006Amelung and Viner 2006;Hein 2007;Giannakopoulos et al 2009;Lemelin et al 2010;Perch-Nielsen 2010;Becken et al 2011;Jones and Phillips 2011;Scott et al 2012c) there has been very little published on climate change impacts on tourism in the North Sea region. Those studies that do exist are all discussed in this chapter.…”

Modeling the sensitivity of outdoor recreation activities to climate change

“…Weather conditions are one of the major determinants for leisure, sport, tourist and outdoor recreation activities (Palutikof et al 2004, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010. Therefore, the impact of climate on these activities has received particular attention (for over views see Gössling & Hall 2006, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010.…”

“…Therefore, the impact of climate on these activities has received particular attention (for over views see Gössling & Hall 2006, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010. Climate change will, for instance, lead to changes of visitor flows within seasons of the year as well as to changes in the activities used (e.g.…”

“…PerchNielsen et al 2010). Climate change is also expected to lead to shifts in visitor flow in a country (Elsasser & Bürki 2002) as well as on an international level (Hamilton et al 2005, Perch-Nielsen 2010. Leisure, sport, tour ism and outdoor recreation activities are important for regional and national economies.…”

“…Furthermore, these activities are crucial for the wellbeing of societies and are thus of particular economic and societal importance. Quantifying the exposure and sensitivity of these activities to changes in climatic conditions is thus of outmost importance (Perch-Nielsen 2010). Even though the relationships be tween weather and outdoor recreation are obvious, quantitative assessments of these effects are rare (see e.g.…”