Assessing Tourists’ Perceptions of Climate Change on Mountain Landscapes

BRUCE PRIDEAUX, ALEXANDER COGHLAN and KAREN MCNAMA

The increasing popularity of mountains as a tourism resource has coincided with growing concerns about the probable impact of climate change on sensitive mountain ecosystems and the long-term sustainability of these ecosystems. This paper outlines and tests a six-step model that synthesizes scientific research into the probable impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems with tourism research that evaluates how tourists are likely to respond to visual changes in mountain landscapes. The model was tested in the Wet Tropics rainforests of Queensland, Australia and found to have a predicative capability on possible tourist response to climate change impacts in mountain destinations.

Keywords: climate change; mountains; sustainability; wet Tropics rainforest; adaptation; landscapes; climate change.