How Climate Change is Considered in Sustainable Tourism Policies: A Case of The Mediterranean Islands of Malta and Mallorca

Abstract

Mediterranean island case studies of Calvià, Mallorca, and Malta are used to examine how sustainable tourism policies do, do not, and should factor in climate change in order to reduce the vulnerabilities of the tourism sector to climate change. Data were collected from key actors responsible for policy implementation as well as tourism policy and planning documents from Malta's and Calvià's tourism industries. Tourism in both sites has significant vulnerabilities to climate change, but climate change was rarely stated as being an important tourism issue. That was the case even when policies include measures that contribute to climate change adaptation, although those policies were implemented for reasons other than climate change. Six policy suggestions are made for adapting to climate change in the case studies' tourism industries: Enacting effective control systems to ensure that policies are implemented and monitored; improving education and awareness on climate change and its potential impacts; placing sustainable tourism and climate change within broader policy frameworks; implementing economic incentives to encourage adjustment strategies; using accountable, flexible, and participatory approaches for addressing climate change in sustainable tourism policies; and filling in policy gaps while further integrating policies. Placing climate change into wider contexts reveals that some aspects of tourism might not be sustainable for small islands. Climate change should therefore be one dimension among many topics within sustainable tourism policies. That approach would provide impetus and support for pursuing strategies that should also be implemented for reasons other than climate change.