The Place of Tourism in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: A Review

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published its fourth assessment report (AR4), representing the current state of knowledge about the causes and impacts of climate change as well as possible options for adaptation and mitigation. This article reviews the place of tourism in the AR4. Clearly, tourism has been given more space in comparison to the previous report. Nevertheless, substantial regional imbalances in available knowledge are revealed, as well as a virtual absence of information about the contribution of tourism to climate change. The article ends with a discussion of several issues that demand a priority position for tourism on the research agenda for the coming years.