Managing climate change impacts on tourism: Mitigating and adaptive strategies with special reference to the Western Cape Province of South Africa

Abstract

Climate is considered to be a tourist resource, and it is widely acknowledged that the nature and distribution of tourist activities are affected by climatic elements. Changing world climatic regimes are therefore likely to have long term impacts on tourism activities, resources and distribution patterns. South African tourism will not escape the impacts of climate change. This is unfortunately also true of the Western Cape, South Africa’s premier tourist destination. This article explores the impacts of climate change on tourism in this sub-region and investigates the actions that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. A model for the development of adaptive strategies is proposed.