Demand-Side Perceptions of Climate Change Impacts in Destinations: Development, Validation, and Application of a Psychometric Scale

Ph.D. Project: Demand-Side Perceptions of Climate Change Impacts in Destinations: Development, Validation, and Application of a Psychometric Scale

The global challenges posed by climate change are multifaceted and will continue to intensify as global warming progresses. Climate change has negative impacts on nature and people that go beyond natural climate variability and are, in some cases, irreversible, as both natural and human systems are being strained beyond their capacity to adapt. The direct and indirect effects of climate change will also impact tourism and bring about changes in the supply factors of destinations. Some of the changes induced by the various pathways of climate change are already observable today, such as shifts in average weather conditions or damage to ecosystems and infrastructure.

While tourism market research has for many years included studies on consumer awareness and demand trends regarding sustainable vacation travel, there has been no systematic analysis to date of how climate change-related changes in destinations are perceived from a demand-side perspective, nor of possible behavioral responses among the German population in terms of decision-making and travel behavior. This research project is dedicated to investigating these relationships and aims to develop and validate a psychometric scale for the systematic measurement of the demand-side subjective perception of how destinations are affected by climate change.

The dissertation is being conducted as a cumulative doctoral project at the European University of Flensburg in cooperation with the German Institute for Tourism Research, with Professor Dr. Bernd Eisenstein serving as the primary advisor and Professor Dr. Anne Köchling as the secondary advisor.