Climate Change and Tourism in Latin America

Abstract

This study analyses the scientific papers resulting from the search in Spanish of climate change and tourism or tourist. It is about ten studies published in Spanish in the last ten years. All the articles refer to Latin American realities, and most of them were developed by academic entities from countries coinciding with the countries addressed. It is evident a focus on tropical tourist destinations that coincides with countries most affected by the phenomenon of climate change. However, they are also underdeveloped States where tourism is a relevant economic support. In the context of these tropical destinations, particular attention has brought beach tourism. These publications are widely based on sources from developed countries and documents produced by relevant international organisations. Such sources predict that climatic changes would cause geographic redistributions of tourist flows, economic costs for specific tourist destinations, limitations for the development of certain seasonal activities, but also benefits to some tourist destinations with historical cold climates. From a methodological perspective, half of the works have displayed perception studies as research strategies and have preferred to consult residents, instead of tourists.