Global change—defined as the sum of worldwide demographic, socioeconomic, and climatological shifts—is affecting Alpine tourism, particularly ski tourism. Above all, the direct effects of climate change—including higher average temperatures and more frequent extreme events such as heavy precipitation, storms, warm air outbreaks, and droughts—require ski resorts and ski destinations to take action. The focus of adaptation is on technical measures, particularly snowmaking and the expansion of facilities to higher elevations, in order to maintain alpine skiing as the status quo.
However, the winter of 2006–07, which is considered the warmest on record to date, revealed the limits of technical adaptation—from economic, ecological, and social perspectives alike.
For a long-term, successful, and sustainable adaptation to global changes—not only of a climatological nature—the current focus on technical adaptation is insufficient. Further adaptations at the behavioral level, as well as mitigation strategies, are necessary and must be increasingly implemented, which will result in a change to the status quo of ski tourism.
In the causally interconnected human-environment system of ski tourism, behavioral and mitigation strategies can only be successfully implemented through direct cooperation between the supply and demand sides—between ski destinations and ski tourists. An adjustment to the status quo on the supply side therefore also requires an adjustment of demand to changing supply conditions.
Expanded forms of interconnected behavioral adaptation and mitigation strategies, combined with more conscious, sustainable consumption, can lead to new opportunities for ski tourism and alpine tourism as a whole, thereby reducing its vulnerability to global change.
The SkiSustain research project models the interactions between global change, consumer demand, and supply strategies to develop a vulnerability model and test options for sustainable adaptation.