Preparing for climate change: recognising its early impacts through the perceptions of dive tourists and dive operators in the Egyptian Red Sea

Abstract

Climate change has the potential to permanently alter the attraction of many destinations and substantially impact the benefits derived from tourism. These impacts can be reduced if vulnerability to climate change is understood and operators take steps to adapt. Some of the more immediate and manageable impacts are likely to result from changes in tourist perceptions and attitudes towards climate change. We test for early impacts in the Red Sea region and for the awareness of tourism operators. We interviewed 150 tourists and 35 operators. Our data suggest that changes in tourist awareness are already apparent; yet, operators ascribe only a moderate level of environmental and climate awareness to them. This ‘perception gap’ increases the vulnerability of dive operators.

Keywords:

• climate change
• adaptive capacity
• climate vulnerability
• climate risk
• attitudinal change
• climate adaptation planning

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was gratefully received from the IUCN Global Marine Programme and from CSIRO, Climate Adaptation Flagship. We sincerely thank the dedicated field efforts of Arm Ali, Heba Shawky and Richard Anscombe. We are also indebted to Duan Biggs, Antasia Azure and Mark Howden for constructive comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.