6 August 2013 Preparing for climate change and disasters in tourism

Lincoln University researchers have partnered with Destination Northland to examine the impact of climate change on tourism, and disaster preparedness in the industry.

Tourism is an important industry for New Zealand, directly contributing some NZ$6.9billion (or 3.8 percent) of New Zealand’s total gross domestic product and indirectly contributing a further NZ$8.8 billion (or 4.8 percent). It is also New Zealand’s largest export industry with over 2.6 million international tourists visiting in 2011, collectively providing over NZ$9.7 billion or 16.8 percent of the country’s total export earnings.

With climate change and New Zealand’s disaster prone position on the ‘Ring of Fire’, increasing the resilience and sustainability of the tourism sector in the face of natural disasters is seen as critical for the sustainability of the tourism industry.

“The objective of this Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment funded research is to help businesses in the tourism industry to be better prepared for the inevitable climate changes that will occur,” says key researcher, Professor Ken Hughey.

“We worked with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and Victoria University to better understand and predict – with improved region-specific climate change modelling – what climate change would mean to tourism and how it would affect specific operations such as ski-fields, gondolas, and so on. We looked at up to 20 different businesses and considered the likely impact on them from climate change.”

During this study researchers discovered there could be some 7000 overnighting tourists in Northland at any one time. They also looked at tourism in other regional centres, including Queenstown and the West Coast. They found that not one of the 15 regional civil defence emergency plans included considerations for the tourism industry.

In partnership with Destination New Zealand the researchers set about developing a framework to better link the tourism industry into civil defence and emergency management activities. And, with support from the Tourism Development Group, they also developed a complementary Visitor Action Plan that outlined actions across the four R’s that constitute the framework of emergency management in New Zealand: Reduction, Readiness, Response and Recovery. The plan is now being implemented to increase resilience of tourism in Northland and ensure greater preparedness for natural disasters.

As a result of this research tourism in Northland is now formally linked into the civil defence and emergency management system, and this model is attracting interest from other regional tourism organisations.

Professor Hughey says, “Internationally, disaster risk reduction has been recognised as a key issue for tourism (e.g. by the World Tourism Organisation) and establishing a reputation for being better prepared, forewarned and forearmed will be worth millions for New Zealand tourism. This research positions Lincoln University at the forefront of this field and is already attracting international attention.”

On studying people’s responses to extreme events such as cyclones, tsunamis and other disasters, Lincoln University researchers also found that the costly impacts of such events were a major concern for the sustainability of the destination. What followed was an 18-month project to study how the tourism industry could adapt to climate change.

“Not only has this research helped to ensure the sustainability of the tourism sector by identifying key issues, gaps, partnerships and ways forward for tourism to become better prepared for costly natural disasters, it has also built capacity and created essential links between two disconnected communities – civil defence and tourism.”

For more information, see the article on page 60 of the University’s research profile publication Transform.