Key Points for Policy and Decision Makers, and Tourism Operators

• Risk considers not only the potential level of harm but also the likelihood that such harm will occur. The familiarity of planners and decision makers with risk management in other areas helps facilitate the mainstreaming of risk-based adaptation to climate change.

• Adaptation can be defined as those actions or activities that people undertake, individually or collectively, to accommodate, cope with, or benefit from, the effects of climate change , including changes in climate variability and extremes (beyond the natural variability of the global climate). In the past, tourism has continuously adapted to other risks and changes; adapting to climate change builds on this adaptive capacity.

• Adaptation should be 'mainstreamed' and implemented as an integral part of national and tourism development planning, environmental management and disaster management.

• Climate change has consequences for various components of the tourism system: appeal of a destination, transport infrastructure and operations, the resource base (natural and human), tourist satisfaction and safety, and the viability or sustainability of tourist facilities and destinations.

• Tourism demand is sensitive to changes in climate; this poses a challenge to those destinations that might become less competitive as a consequence of climate change; it also provides an opportunity for those destinations that have low appeal under current climatic conditions.

• 'Climate proofed' attractions and product diversification are being used to reduce disparities in tourist demand between high and low seasons and to increase the attractiveness of destinations that may suffer unfavourable climatic conditions.

• Climate change impacts on the natural resource base of tourism; conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecosystem structure and function are therefore important climate change adaptation strategies in relation to tourism's natural resource base.