National tourism policy for climate change

Abstract

Tourism will be highly impacted upon by climate change and adaptation and mitigation policies implemented by other agencies. This paper seeks to increase our understanding of the role tourism plays in relation to climate change policies and identifies gaps where specific tourism policy might be required to address climate change. Based on the case studies of Fiji and New Zealand, common areas of concern relating to climate change will be identified, existing policy settings discussed and challenges of the policy development process explored. Existing climate policies were found to cover tourism for many issues, either directly or indirectly, and tourism-specific policy needs relate mainly to a better integration with these policies, education and capacity building, business performance and marketing. The participatory process and the creation of a tourism-climate change policy network have proven successful in both case studies.