The importance of climate and weather for tourism: literature review

Abstract

Climate and weather are important factors in tourists’ decision making and also influence the successful operation of tourism businesses. More specifically, climate is defined as the prevailing condition observed as a long term average in a location. In contrast, weather is the manifestation of climate at a specific point in time and place. So, while tourists might expect certain climatic conditions when they travel to a place, they will experience the actual weather, which might deviate quite substantially from the average conditions. Hence, in the first place tourists and tourism businesses are likely to be affected by weather conditions, although in the long term these will follow systematic changes as projected under different climate change scenarios. For example, surface and sea temperatures are generally forecast to increase, rain patterns will change with some areas becoming wetter and others driers, and the occurrence of extreme events is likely to increase. For this reason, tourist destinations will benefit from understanding potential climatic changes in their area and how they might impact on their operations. The following sections of this report review the international literature on how climate/weather and tourism interact. The existing literature provides an insight into global phenomena, for example destination choice, as well as very specific case studies of weather-recreation interactions such as the impact of warmer summers in Canada on the length of the golfing season. Both aspects are relevant to tourism in New Zealand, although findings need to be transferred to the New Zealand situation. In the following, tourism demand will be discussed first. This includes an analysis of the importance of climate and weather for international tourist flows and destination choice, tourist satisfaction and safety. This is then followed by a discussion of how climate change will change the conditions in which tourism destinations will operate and manage tourist flows and assets. The impact of warmer temperatures, sea level rise, changing alpine environments as well as other ecosystems will be considered.