Vulnerability to global change and sustainable adaptation of ski tourism ‐ SkiSustain -

Global change, as the sum of demographic, socio-economic and climatological changes worldwide, affects alpine tourism, especially ski tourism. In particular, the direct effects of climate change, with higher average temperatures, more frequent extreme events such as heavy precipitation, storms, warm air infiltration or droughts, require responses from ski resorts and ski destinations. The main focus of adaptation is on technical adaptation, in specific on snowmaking and the extension of ski lifts to maintain the status quo of alpine skiing.
However, the analogous winter of 2006/07, considered to be the warmest winter on record, showed the limits of technical adaptation from an economic, environmental and social point of view.
The current focus on technical adaptation is not sufficient for long-term successful and sustainable adaptation to global changes, not only of a climatological nature. Further behavioural adaptations and avoidance strategies are needed and must be increasingly applied, changing the status quo of ski tourism.
In the causally linked human-environment system of ski tourism, behavioural and avoidance strategies can only be successfully implemented through direct cooperation between the supply and demand sides, between ski destinations and ski tourists. Adapting the status quo on the supply side therefore also requires adapting demand to changing supply.
Extended forms of networked behavioural adaptation and avoidance strategies can lead to new opportunities for ski tourism and alpine tourism as a whole through more conscious, sustainable consumption, thereby reducing its vulnerability to global change.
The SkiSustain research project models the interactions between global change, consumer demand and supply strategies in order to develop a vulnerability model and test sustainable adaptation options.