The Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System

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Highlights

  • The Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System consists of five knowledge domains.

  • Knowledge across academic, practical and political domains is compared.

  • Outputs reflect a range of underlying ideologies, dominated by neoliberalism.

  • Barriers to the science-policy-practice interface of tourism and climate are identified.

  • Feedbacks and links between system elements need to be improved.

Abstract

Effective climate change action relies on the production of relevant knowledge. This review provides an interdisciplinary meta-analysis to critically assess tourism and climate change knowledge production across three knowledge domains: academic, practical and political. Building on existing tourism knowledge frameworks and applying systems thinking, the Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System is developed consisting of five knowledge dimensions: Source of knowledge, Knowledge creation, Influence on knowledge, Knowledge content and Knowledge impact. Results reveal how knowledge differs across domains and what barriers impede effective knowledge generation. While some links could be identified, there remains a disconnect between academic knowledge outputs and practical and political knowledge needs. The holistic lens enables the formulation of recommendations to enhance the production and use of knowledge.

Introduction

The knowledge field of tourism and climate change has expanded considerably, reflecting growing interest, evidence and concern related to the role tourism plays in global environmental change; both as a contributor and recipient of impacts. The science (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2018) suggests that tourism businesses and destinations are likely to face increasingly drastic changes in the future (Scott et al., 2012; Scott et al., 2019), and the sector needs to learn how to adapt to climate change impacts (Hughey & Becken, 2014; Mycoo, 2014). Already, tourism stakeholders on the ground are accumulating knowledge and experience associated with weather patterns, extreme events and environmental changes (e.g. Becken & Wilson, 2016; Payet, 2007; Vodenska & Gössling, 2018).

At the same time, scientist have clearly stated that significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are required at all levels to stay within ‘safe’ limits of climate change as agreed on in the Paris Agreement (IPCC, 2018). This need for rapid decarbonisation does not spare tourism (Scott et al., 2016), with calls for the tourism industry to act on climate change gathering momentum (The SunX Program & World Travel & Tourism Council, 2019). In response to both the climate science and political and practical imperatives, academics have sought to extend knowledge on a wide range of carbon-focused research questions (e.g. Cohen et al., 2011; Lenzen et al., 2018; Peeters et al., 2019). Despite a growing body of knowledge, tourism practice – it appears – has changed little (Sharpley, 2020), with destinations continuing development in exposed locations and investment into carbon intensive technologies and market segments. The paradox of “knowing better and losing even more” (White et al., 2001, p. 81), presents a challenge for tourism as the sector prepares for a different future. The apparent contradiction (or gap) between theory and practice warrants an investigation into what type of knowledge is currently produced, and how scientific knowledge links to tourism stakeholders' approaches to managing climate change risk and developing relevant policy.

The existence of a ‘knowledge-action’ gap is not unique to the context of tourism. Examining the related field of vulnerability and resilience, Weichselgartner and Obersteiner (2002) argue that a barrier to addressing environmental hazards may not be a lack of knowledge but the inadequate transfer of it from researchers to decision makers. Thus, there is a need to better understand the way tourism and climate change knowledge is created, shared and used. Others, expressing frustration about the lack of action by the tourism sector, have argued that incremental changes will be insufficient to address the climate crisis, but only a paradigm shift will deliver the required outcomes (Becken, 2019; Hall, 2019). A paradigm shift will equally affect knowledge generation and practice, as “the way in which problems are framed and how knowledge is produced has significant implications for policy development and societal outcomes” (Abson et al., 2017, p.35).

Several reviews of the academic tourism and climate change literature were conducted in the past (Becken, 2013; Fang et al., 2018; Hernandez & Ryan, 2011; Kaján & Saarinen, 2013; Njoroge, 2015). However, all reviews have focused on one particular knowledge domain (scientific), and on identifying emerging themes, rather than on the wider parameters of the knowledge production system. Academic research often claims to inform policy and practice; however, a comparison between scientific and applied tourism and climate change knowledge is lacking. Moreover, a critical reflection on the context of either domain of knowledge is missing, raising questions about what we know about tourism and climate change knowledge, but also about what we do not know (i.e. ‘known unknowns’).

This paper defines and examines the Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System to answer the following research questions:

  • 1.

    What are the elements that make up the Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System?

  • 2.

    Does knowledge on tourism and climate change differ across different knowledge domains (academic, practical, political)?

  • 3.

    Where are barriers to knowledge transfer, and how can the system be improved to enhance the generation and use of relevant tourism and climate change knowledge?

Section snippets

Background

This section introduces the concept of a tourism climate change knowledge system and the knowledge domains and processes that form part of it.

Methodology

This review employed a qualitative methodology whereby the researchers adopted a critical approach to current tourism and climate change knowledge. This supported the application an interdisciplinary meta-analysis of existing knowledge outputs representing three domains of knowledge: Academic, practical and political knowledge. The meta-analysis applied here extends beyond synthesising existing literature but instead asks questions concerning key assumptions and influences shaping previous

Overview of the system

The Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System is visualised in Fig. 3, including its key system elements: inputs, processes, environment, outputs and feedbacks. Each of the elements is discussed in more detail below. A summary table of the results is provided in the supplementary material.

Source of knowledge

Source of knowledge represents the input into the system. Most influential academic articles took a global perspective to tourism and climate change (Fig. 4). In contrast, reports were mostly country or region

A holistic view on tourism climate change knowledge production

This is the first review that positions research on tourism and climate change within a wider knowledge system. This is important because only by understanding the wider system can we gain an appreciation of the drivers that influence what knowledge is produced, and who has access to it. Uncovering those drivers is critical in interpreting the corpus of work and its impact on informing actions. The Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System revealed several gaps and constraints which act as

Conclusion

This study applied systems thinking to investigate tourism and climate change knowledge. Following an interdisciplinary meta-analysis of tourism and climate change publications, the Tourism Climate Change Knowledge System was developed. The system elements comprise five knowledge dimensions: Source of knowledge, Knowledge creation, Influence on knowledge, Knowledge content and Knowledge impact. These were assessed across three knowledge domains: academic, practical and political. The systems

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Johanna Loehr conducted the document search, development of framework together with the co-author, data analysis and write up.

Susanne Becken contributed to the method applied identifying documents for the review, development of the framework, data analysis and write up.

Declaration of competing interest

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Johanna Loehr is an Early Career Researcher, as well as an active sustainable tourism industry professional having completed projects for both government and the private sector. Her research interests are tourism and climate change, sustainable tourism, policy making and systems thinking.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Johanna Loehr is an Early Career Researcher, as well as an active sustainable tourism industry professional having completed projects for both government and the private sector. Her research interests are tourism and climate change, sustainable tourism, policy making and systems thinking.

    Susanne Becken is a Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University in Australia, and a VC Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, UK. She has published widely on sustainable tourism, climate change and tourism resource use. Susanne is a member of the Air New Zealand Sustainability Advisory Panel, My Green Butler Advisory Board, and the Whitsunday Climate Change Innovation Hub.

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