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For over a decade, the scientific community and park professionals have recognized that climate change will have critical implications for park conservation policy and management (International Union for Conservation of Nature, 1993; Welch, 2005). The implications of global climate change for nature-based park tourism has only recently begun to be assessed. Nature-based tourism and related outdoor recreation are strongly influenced by climate. Climate can affect the physical resources that define the foundation of many tourism and recreation activities as well as the length and quality of tourism and recreation seasons. Any changes in the length and quality of tourism and recreation operating seasons brought about by changes in the climate would have considerable implications for visitation and related aspects of park management. Canada's national parks are a major resource for nature-based tourism, with approximately 16 million person visits in 2003. Visitation to Canada's national parks is highly seasonal and greatly affected by the country's regional climates. This paper examined the potential impact of climate change on the annual number of visitors and the seasonal pattern of visitation in Canada's national parks. Multivariate regression analysis using four climate variables and monthly visitation data for 1996 to 2003 was used to develop a monthly climate-visitation model for 15 high visitation parks. Each park-specific model was then run with two climate change scenarios to assess potential changes in park visitation under a range of climatic conditions projected for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. Results indicate that Canada's national parks could experience an increase in visitors under climate change due to a lengthened and improved warm-weather tourism season. In the 2020s, overall visitation levels were projected to increase 6% to 8%, with a number of parks projected to experience larger increases (+12% to 30%). The largest increases in visitation occur during the spring and fall months. Visitation was projected to increase between 9% and 29% system-wide in the 2050s and between 10% and 41% in the 2080s. Perhaps more importantly, the affects of climate change will be combined with other factors influencing park visitation in the future..... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an empirical investigation of the historical relationship between the destination climate and tourist arrivals in the Caribbean, this study presents the first revealed preference evaluation of a climate index informed by tourists' stated climatic preferences for coastal-beach tourism (i.e., a sun-sand-surf or 3S travel market). The goal of this multi-organization collaboration was to examine the potential application of a newly designed climate index—the Holiday Climate Index (HCI):Beach—for three Caribbean destinations (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Saint Lucia). This paper provides an overview of the evolution of climate indices, including the development of the (HCI):Beach. To test the validity of climate indices for a beach travel market, daily climate ratings based on outputs from the Tourism Climate Index and the HCI were correlated with monthly arrivals data from Canada (a key source market) at an island destination scale. The results underscore the strength of the new index, with each destination scoring consistently higher using the HCI:Beach, including a stronger relationship (R2) between index scores and tourist arrivals. These findings demonstrate the value of combining stated and revealed preference methodologies to predict tourism demand and highlight opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]