Glacier tourism in times of climate change: Past, present and future

Glacier tourism includes a large variety of outdoor activities and tourism practices in all seasons, with a wide bandwidth of infrastructure involved and considerably differing frequentation and economic impact. However, glacier tourism is a traditional, “compulsory” resource-based form of tourism in mountain areas that already experiences challenges related to climate change, which are expected to further increase in the future given global warming and glacier shrinkage scenarios. Therefore, it is crucial to assess how glacier recession is perceived by visitors and anticipated (or not) by operators. How will glacier destinations evolve (from demand and supply side) with diminishing or even no ice in some decades? Given this relevance, this session aims to review the current research on glacier tourism, to identify progress and existing knowledge gaps in the field and to identify future research paths and possible collaborations. This session addresses topics like stakeholder adaptation, visitor motivations, perceptions and experiences, destination evolution, and related questions.