Tourism adaptation to climate change in the lenses of sustainability: Sustainable-adaptation

Abstract

Climate change is considered one of the greatest challenges for humanity in the 21st century and beyond. Climate sensitive industries including tourism are vulnerable. In efforts to counter climate change, mitigation and adaptation are proposed. Mitigation is an important policy response to climate change however it may not address the immediate risks posed by climate change but adaptation is Urgent. In practice some tourism stakeholders are already engaging with either planed adaptation or autonomous adaptation. However, concerns have been raised on sustainability of adaptation options and approaches. Considering sustainable adaptation has received little interest in tourism research and the fact that tourism is considered behind in many aspects of climate change, this paper intends to fast forward this important theme in tourism climate research. I intend to discuss adaptation in the context of sustainability. Five issues that tourism may face while forging sustainable adaptation are highlighted including: Heterogeneous actors with differentiated interest; Competition for resources; Limited research on sustainable-adaptation; Awareness gap and Lack of commitment among tourism players.