Alpine tourism and climate change adaptation

This case study investigated business innovation activity in response to the impacts climate change has had in the Alpine and Highland regions of New South Wales. Climate change includes temperature changes, and changes in the frequency and intensity of weather events such as heatwaves, severe storms and bushfires. 

The Alpine tourism sector has a long and well documented history of dealing with climate variability and has developed a host of coping strategies. For the ski resorts this is most evident in their investments in snow-making and grooming activities. For these businesses, these adaptations represent the focus of activity in the current and near future – as one interviewee said, “as long as nights continue to cool to zero degrees, we can make enough snow”.

The case study highlighted the differing ambitions for tourism in the region held by the ski resorts and associated businesses, versus the wider business communities of the Alpine region. This plays into contrasting visions for the region's future, based on differing business models of the associated businesses, and how these businesses address the issues of diversification and revenue security in the face of climate change and other dynamics in the region.

Adaptive capacity is markedly different across the Alpine tourism industry and the region. The impact of this unevenly distributed capacity is further compounding demographic and socio-economic changes that are also playing out unevenly across the industry and region.

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