Arctic Tourism Faces Climate Crisis: Research Gaps Threaten Industry Planning
A comprehensive analysis of 137 studies reveals that climate change research on polar tourism is geographically spotty and thematically unbalanced—with far more focus on adapting to climate impacts than cutting carbon emissions. For tourism operators and governments planning Arctic investments, the gaps suggest policy decisions may be missing critical information about long-term industry viability.
Originaltitel: A virtual geobibliography of polar tourism and climate change
<p>The polar regions are increasingly at the center of attention as the hot spots of climate crisis as well as tourism development. The recent IPCC reports highlight several climate change risks for the rather carbon-intensive and weather-based/dependent polar tourism industry in the Arctic and the Antarctic. This study presents the scholarly state-of-knowledge on tourism and climate change in the polar regions with a literature survey extending beyond the Anglophone publications. As a supporting tool, we provide a live web GIS application based on the geographical coverages of the publications and filterable by various spatial, thematic and bibliographical attributes. The final list of 137 publications indicates that, regionally, the Arctic has been covered more than the Antarctic, whilst an uneven distribution within the Arctic also exists. In terms of the climate change risks themes, climate risk research, i.e. impact and adaptation studies, strongly outnumbers the carbon risk studies especially in the Arctic context, and, despite a balance between the two main risk themes, climate risk research in the Antarctic proves itself outdated. Accordingly, the review ends with a research agenda based on these spatial and thematic gaps and their detailed breakdowns.</p>