Tourism and global environmental change

Tourism and Global

Environmental Change

Global environmental change is one of the most significant issues facing human￾kind. Tourism and Global Environmental Change provides the first comprehen￾sive analysis of the economic, social and political interrelationships between

tourism and global environmental change. In this book, tourism is seen to be both a

significant contributor to global environmental change and one of the economic

sectors that potentially will be most impacted by such changes.

Tourism and Global Environmental Change is divided into three sections. The

first section examines the tourism and global environmental change relationship in

specific environments, including polar regions, mountains, rivers, forests, coastal

regions, reefs, deserts and the urban environment. The second section looks at

specific global issues related to environmental change and includes the spread of

disease and its potential effects on tourism, biodiversity, water resources and

extreme weather events. The final section discusses some of the different percep￾tions held by tourists and the tourist industry on global environmental change. It

concludes by investigating some of the potential responses to global environ￾mental change by the tourism industry and government.

This indispensable collection of essays from leading scholars in the field,

Tourism and Global Environmental Change, concludes that there is a major crisis

facing tourism. It argues that impacts are real and are potentially extremely serious

both for tourism and for the communities that depend upon the tourism industry.

Stefan Gössling is Associate Professor, Department of Service Management,

Lund University, Sweden.

C. Michael Hall is Professor, Department of Tourism, University of Otago,

Dunedin, New Zealand, and Docent, Department of Geography, University of

Oulu, Finland.

Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility

Series Editor: C. Michael Hall

Professor at the Department of Tourism, University of Otago, New Zealand.

The aim of this series is to explore and communicate the intersections and relation￾ships between leisure, tourism and human mobility within the social sciences.

It will incorporate both traditional and new perspectives on leisure and tourism

from contemporary geography, e.g. notions of identity, representation and culture,

while also providing for perspectives from cognate areas such as anthropology,

cultural studies, gastronomy and food studies, marketing, policy studies and polit￾ical economy, regional and urban planning, and sociology, within the development

of an integrated field of leisure and tourism studies.

Also, increasingly, tourism and leisure are regarded as steps in a continuum of

human mobility. Inclusion of mobility in the series offers the prospect to examine

the relationship between tourism and migration, the sojourner, educational travel,

and the second home and retirement travel phenomena.

The series comprises two strands:

Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility aims to

address the needs of students and academics, and the titles will be published in

hardback and paperback. Titles include:

The Moralisation of Tourism

Sun, sand … and saving the world?

Jim Butcher

The Ethics of Tourism Development

Mick Smith and Rosaleen Duffy

Tourism in the Caribbean

Trends, development, prospects

Edited by David Timothy Duval

Qualitative Research in Tourism

Ontologies, epistemologies and

methodologies

Edited by Jenny Phillimore and Lisa

Goodson

The Media and the Tourist

Imagination

Converging cultures

Edited by David Crouch, Rhona

Jackson and Felix Thompson

Tourism and Global Environmental

Change

Ecological, social, economic and

political interrelationships

Edited by Stefan Gössling and

C. Michael Hall

Routledge Studies in Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and

Mobility is a forum for innovative new research intended for research students

and academics, and the titles will be available in hardback only. Titles include:

1. Living with Tourism

Negotiating Identities in a Turkish

Village

Hazel Tucker

2. Tourism, Diaspora and Space

Tim Coles and Dallen J. Timothy

3. Tourism and Postcolonialism

Contested discourses, identities and

representations

C. Michael Hall and Hazel Tucker

Tourism and Global

Environmental Change

Ecological, social, economic and

political interrelationships

Edited by Stefan Gössling and

C. Michael Hall

First published 2006

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

© 2006 Stefan Gössling and C. Michael Hall editorial matter and

selection; the contributors their individual chapters.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in

any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Gössling, Stefan.

Tourism and global environmental change : ecological, social,

economic, and political interrelationships / Stefan Gössling and

C. Michael Hall.

p. cm. — (Contemporary geographies of leisure, tourism, and

mobility) Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Tourism—Environmental aspects. 2. Global environmental change.

I. Hall, Colin Michael, 1961– II. Title. III. Series.

G155.A1G67 2005 338.4791–dc22

2005011328

ISBN10: 0-415-36131-1(hbk)

ISBN10: 0-415-36132-X(pbk)

ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-36131-6 (hbk)

ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-36132-3 (pbk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s

collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

Contents

List of tables vii

List of figures ix

List of contributors x

Preface xii

Acknowledgements xiii

1 An introduction to tourism and global environmental change 1

STEFAN GÖSSLING AND C. MICHAEL HALL

PART I

Environments 35

2 Impacts of global environmental change on tourism in the

polar regions 37

MARGARET E. JOHNSTON

3 Global environmental change and mountain tourism 54

DANIEL SCOTT

4 Lakes and streams 76

BRENDA E. JONES, DANIEL SCOTT AND STEFAN GÖSSLING

5 Tourism and forest ecosystems 95

STEFAN GÖSSLING AND THOMAS HICKLER

6 The coastal and marine environment 107

STEPHEN J. CRAIG-SMITH, RICHARD TAPPER AND XAVIER FONT

7 Deserts and savannah regions 128

ROBERT PRESTON-WHYTE, SHIRLEY BROOKS AND WILLIAM ELLERY

8 Tourism urbanisation and global environmental change 142

C. MICHAEL HALL

PART II

Global issues 157

9 Tourism, disease and global environmental change:

the fourth transition? 159

C. MICHAEL HALL

10 Tourism and water 180

STEFAN GÖSSLING

11 Extreme weather events 195

CHRIS R. DE FREITAS

12 Tourism, biodiversity and global environmental change 211

C. MICHAEL HALL

PART III

Stakeholder adaptation and perceptions 227

13 The role of climate information in tourist destination

choice decision making 229

JACQUELINE M. HAMILTON AND MAREN A. LAU

14 Restructuring the tourist industry: new marketing

perspectives for global environmental change 251

SZILVIA GYIMÓTHY

15 US ski industry adaptation to climate change:

hard, soft and policy strategies 262

DANIEL SCOTT

16 The example of the avalanche winter 1999 and the

storm Lothar in the Swiss Alps 286

CHRISTIAN J. NÖTHIGER, ROLF BÜRKI AND HANS ELSASSER

17 Tourists and global environmental change: a possible

scenario in relation to nature and authenticity 293

ERIKA ANDERSSON CEDERHOLM AND JOHAN HULTMAN

18 Conclusion: wake up ... this is serious 305

STEFAN GÖSSLING AND C. MICHAEL HALL

Index 321

vi Contents

Tables

1.1 Changes in climate and weather phenomena 14

1.2 Weaknesses of current models in predicting travel flows 22

2.1 Some aspects of global environmental change with

relevance for Arctic tourism 44

3.1 Comparison of climate change impacts on the ski industry 58

3.2 Visitation to parks in the Rocky Mountains under climate

change scenarios 67

4.1 Projected season length of the Rideau Canal Skateway

under climate change 81

4.2 Fresh water bathing areas in Europe, 2003 83

4.3 Endangered wetlands and saltwater intrusion 89

5.1 Forest-based activities 96

6.1 Regulatory instruments 112

6.2 Coastal erosion 115

6.3 Habitat degradation 117

6.4 Pollution 118

6.5 Water handling management 119

6.6 Cruise ships 121

6.7 Local sourcing of products 122

6.8 Marine-based activities 123

6.9 Recreational areas 124

6.10 Commercial fishing 125

6.11 Key factors in an integrated approach to tourism and

coastal and marine management 126

9.1 What is carried by humans when they travel 162

9.2 World population growth compared to growth in

international tourism arrivals 163

9.3 Pre-border, border and post-border biosecurity strategies 171

9.4 Possible direct and indirect health effects arising from

global climate change 173

10.1 Global flows of tourists between regions and

corresponding water use (2000) 185

10.2 Country overview statistics 187

11.1 Definitions and measures of climate and weather

extremes, and impact classes 197

11.2 Day-to-day air temperature variability for the USA, People’s

Republic of China and the former Soviet Union, shown as

mean linear trend (ºC per decade) in daily temperature

variability values 201

13.1 Sources of attributes for the questionnaire 236

13.2 Descriptive profile of respondents 239

13.3 Descriptive profile of holidays 240

13.4 Results of the ranking of destination attributes 241

13.5 Mean differences between destination attribute rank values 241

13.6 Cross-tabulations of climate information and the weather

in the week before the holiday 242

13.7 Number of information sources used 243

13.8 Cross-tabulations of information sources and the weather

and having visited the destination previously 244

13.9 Preferences for information about climate attributes 246

13.10 Preferences for the presentation of information about

climate attributes 246

15.1 Types of climate change adaptation options available to

the ski industry 265

15.2 Natural and snowmaking-enhanced ski seasons in eastern

North America 268

15.3 Ski area revenue sources 275

15.4 North American ski conglomerates 276

15.5 National Ski Areas Association policy on climate change 281

16.1 Direct costs of the avalanche winter of 1999 in Switzerland 288

16.2 Loss of earnings for the tourist industry in the Swiss Alps

caused by the avalanche winter of 1999 289

18.1 Most at-risk destinations 308

18.2 United States passenger and travel forecasts 316

viii Tables

Figures

1.1 Extent of mobility in time and space 3

1.2 Variations in the Earth’s surface temperature, 1000–2100 8

1.3 Themes in the context of tourism and environmental change 15

3.1 Historic ski season variability in the eastern USA 60

3.2 Ski area utilisation in the north-east ski region (1974–75 to

1995–96) 64

3.3 Impact of environmental change on visitation to Glacier￾Waterton Lakes International Peace Park 69

7.1 Global distribution of hyper-arid, arid and semi-arid

(savannah) regions 130

9.1 Growth in world population versus world tourism 163

10.1 Tourism-related shifts in global water use 184

11.1 The number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the tropical

North Atlantic Basin per year, 1886–2003 198

11.2 USA hurricane strikes by decade, 1900–1999 199

11.3 Inter-annual surface temperature variability versus global

temperature anomalies for the 1897–1997 time series 202

11.4 A schematic representation of relationships between climatic

range and tourism potential 203

11.5 Two distributions with the same mean, but the

variance is larger for (b) 204

11.6 A forecast of future maximum air temperature distribution 205

11.7 Response of probability distributions to changes in mean

and variance of daily air temperature 206

13.1 Conceptual model with hypotheses of the role of climate

information in the tourist decision-making process 234

15.1 US ski areas with snowmaking systems 266

15.2 Number of ski areas operating in the USA (1983–2003) 279

18.1 The influence of temporal and spatial resolution on

assessing mobility-related phenomena 309

18.2 Scale in tourism analysis 309

Contributors

Erika Andersson Cederholm, Department of Service Management, Lund Univer￾sity, Box 882, 25108 Helsingborg, Sweden.

Shirley Brooks, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Memorial Tower

Building, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa.

Rolf Bürki, University of Higher Education, Notkerstr. 27, 9000 St Gallen,

Switzerland.

Stephen J. Craig-Smith, School of Tourism and Leisure Management, The

University of Queensland, Ipswich Campus, 11 Salisbury Road, Ipswich,

Queensland 4305, Australia.

Chris R. de Freitas, School of Geography and Environmental Science, City

Campus, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.

William Ellery, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Memorial Tower

Building, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa.

Hans Elsasser, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurer￾strasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.

Xavier Font, Tourism Hospitality and Events School, Leeds Metropolitan Univer￾sity, Leeds LS1 3HE, United Kingdom.

Stefan Gössling, Department of Service Management, Lund University, Box 882,

25108 Helsingborg, Sweden.

Szilvia Gyimóthy, Department of Service Management, Lund University, Box

882, 25108 Helsingborg, Sweden.

C. Michael Hall, Department of Tourism, School of Business, University of

Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Jacqueline M. Hamilton, Center for Marine and Climate Research, Sustainability

and Global Change, University of Hamburg, Bundestrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg,

Germany.

Thomas Hickler, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis,

Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.

Johan Hultman, Department of Service Management, Lund University, Box 882,

25108 Helsingborg, Sweden.

Margaret E. Johnston, School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism,

Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Brenda E. Jones, Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, 200 University

Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1.

Maren A. Lau, Center for Marine and Climate Research, Sustainability and

Global Change, University of Hamburg, Bundestrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg,

Germany.

Christian J. Nöthiger, Ruetschistrasse 27, 8037 Zurich, Switzerland.

Robert Preston-Whyte, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Memorial

Tower Building, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa.

Daniel Scott, Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, 200 University

Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1.

Richard Tapper, Environment Business and Development Group, 16 Glenville

Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 6DD, United Kingdom.

Contributors xi

Preface

Global environmental change undoubtedly represents one of the major challenges

to humanity and the planet, but also to the academy as well.

Concern over the environmental impacts of human actions at a global scale is not

new. Arguably, such concerns can be traced back at least to the work of George

Perkins Marsh in 1864 and have been an ongoing thread in debates on conservation

and resource management ever since. However, for all the scientific and academic

writing on the need for sound resource management and the expressions of interest

in sustainable development, the scale and severity of human impact on natural bio￾physical processes has continued to grow, as has the loss of biodiversity.

Over the past 25 years the tourism industry has often sought to portray itself as a

relatively benign contributor to the conservation of the environment, while simul￾taneously providing positive benefits in terms of employment, economic develop￾ment and wealth generation. Much of this contribution has been described within

the rubric of sustainable tourism and is often highlighted in the portrayal of

tourism as a relatively environmentally friendly industry. It is for these reasons that

one would, therefore, assume tourism to be at the forefront of efforts to promote

more positive approaches towards managing global environmental change. Unfor￾tunately, that is not the case.

As this volume demonstrates, tourism is both a gross contributor to and increas￾ingly affected by global environmental change. Although tourism can be a contrib￾utor to environmental conservation at the local scale, particularly through instances

of ecotourism or nature-based tourism – where specific charismatic species or

ecosystems are conserved – on a global scale tourism is a significant element in envi￾ronmental change.

The editors intend that this book highlight some of the complexities and issues

in the relationship between tourism and global environmental change. We also

believe that Tourism and Global Environmental Change reinforces the need for a

sense of urgency, from students of tourism, as well as the industry and govern￾ment, to take positive actions to curb the more undesirable elements of global envi￾ronmental change, even if that means fundamental changes in the consumption

and practices of tourism itself. Finally, we believe that the book highlights the need

for the tourism research community to look at tourism impacts on a far wider scale

than just what occurs at the level of the local destination.

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank Robert Bockermann, Peter Burns, Dick Butler,

Jean-Paul Ceron, Tim Coles, Arthur Conacher, Dave Crag, Ross Dowling, David

Duval, Monica Gilmour, Mathias Gößling, Szilvia Gyimóthy, Tuija Härkönen,

Cecilia Hegarty, Nadine Heck, James Higham, Johan Hultman, Magnus Jirström,

Bruno Jansson, Donna Keen, Timo Kunkel, Alan Lew, Madelaine Mattson, Geoff

McBoyle, Dieter Müller, Stephen Page, Paul Peeters, Julie Pitcher, Robert Preston￾Whyte, Greg Richards, Meike and Linnea Rinsche, Jarkko Saarinen, Anna-Dora

Saetorsdottir, Chrissy Schriber, Geoff Wall, Brian Wheeler, Allan Williams,

Sandra Wall and Andrea Valentin (even if she did kill Michael’s mulberry tree!),

who have all contributed in various ways to this book, as have various graduate

and undergraduate classes in Dunedin, Helsingborg, Oulu, and Umeå.

Gavin Bryars, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave, Bruce Cockburn, Elvis Costello, Friends,

Stephen Cummings, Hoodoo Gurus, The Sundays, Ed Kuepper, Jackson Code,

Sarah McLachlan, Monty Python, Morphine, Vinnie Reilly, David Sylvian, Jennifer

Warnes, Chris Wilson and BBC 6 Music were also essential to the writing process.

The constantly rainy and cold weather in Sweden gave Stefan a great opportu￾nity to work continuously. Monica Gilmour was a huge help, as usual, in getting

this book to the publishers, while acknowledgement must also be given to the

convivial atmosphere of the Department of Social and Economic Geography,

Umeå University, Sweden, where research for the book was undertaken by

Michael during sabbatical. On a personal level Michael would like to give very

great thanks to Jody, as well as to his own global collection of significant others,

some of whom are mentioned above, for their continued support at a personal and

professional level. Finally, the authors would like to express their appreciation to

Andrew Mould and Zoe Kruze at Routledge for their continued interest in the

project.