Icons at risk: Climate change threatening Australian tourism
Source
This report provides an overview of the effect of climate change on Australian travel destinations, its tourism industry as a whole, and the health of domestic and international travellers.
Key findings include:
- Australia’s top five natural tourist attractions (beaches, wildlife, the Great Barrier Reef, wilderness and national parks) are all at risk of climate change.
- Beaches are Australia’s #1 tourist destination and are threatened by rising sea levels.
- Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Cairns, Darwin, Fremantle and Adelaide are projected to have a least a 100 fold increase in the frequency of coastal flooding events (with a 0.5m sea level rise).
- The Red Centre could experience more than 100 days above 35ºC annually, by 2030. By 2090, there could be more than 160 days per year over 35ºC.
- The Top End could see an increase in hot days (temperatures above 35ºC) from 11 (1981-2010 average) to 43 by 2030, and up to 265 by 2090.
- Ski tourism: Declines of maximum snow depth and decreasing season length at Australian ski resorts have been reported for over 25 years, increasing the need for artificial snow-making.
- Tourism is Australia’s second most valuable export earner, employing a workforce of more than 580,000 people, over 15 times more people than coal mining in Australia.
Explore further
Hazards
Heatwave
Themes
Climate change
Economics of DRR
Country and region
Australia
ISBN/ISSN/DOI
978-1-925573-49-7 (ISBN)
Number of pages
68 p.
Publication year
2018