Climate Change and Wildlife Viewing Tourism in Churchill Manitoba, Canada (on-going)
Research team:
The purpose of the project is to assess the impact that a changing climate will have on the $3 million dollar wildlife viewing tourism industry in the Churchill, Manitoba region of northern Canada. The first objective of the project is to outline the impacts of climate change on tourism supply (i.e. tourism resources – winter & summer) under 'least' and 'most' change for 2020, 2050, and 2080. This will be completed through use of GCM's forced with two IPCC-SRES emission scenarios that represented high (A1F1 - 970 ppm) and low (B1 - 550ppm) greenhouse gas emission futures and through examination of IPCC and ACIA reports. The second objective evaluates the indirect impacts that climate change will have on tourist demand (i.e. changes in tourist behaviour and travel destination choice). This will be assessed via a tourism survey and informal interviews. Demographic and socio-economics (notably changing demographics and rising cost of fuel) will also be considered in the analysis.
