The Relationship of Climate Change & Major Events in Austria
Major events have increasingly become the subject of tourism destination promotion and have grown in importance in driving tourism demand in recent years. However, the staging of major tourist events has not only led to increased CO2 emissions in Austria, the events themselves have also been affected by climate change. The paper at hand is based on a data collection and review process which covered the relevant peer reviewed and grey literature. This comprehensive process was based on, and was open to, contributions by the full scientific community of relevant Austrian researchers and experts. The compilation process of the report followed quality standards such as the involvement of international partners as review editors within the review process. In addition, the literature was surveyed to integrate the international state of the art. The paper discusses the relationship between events and climate change by looking at mitigation measures on the one hand as well as adaptive strategies taken by event organizers on the other. However, a significant lack of objective information and data as well as appropriate scientific studies also became obvious in this process. Against this background main tasks and challenges for further research are identified and discussed. The paper closes with managerial implications for the organization of major events.