Ignoring the inevitable : the neglect of climate change-related risks by tour operators’ employees

Project Description

This paper investigates the differences in climate change-related risk perceptions between tour
operators’ employees and the KLIMARISKSCAN and unravels the underlying explanations for
potential incongruences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the developers of the
KLIMARISKSCAN to gain profound insights into the risk assessment tool. In addition, semi
structured interviews were performed with several employees of two different tour operators to
detect their risk perceptions regarding climate change-related risks in correlation to their tour
operator. The analysis showed that there is a major mismatch between the eighteen identified
climate change-related risks identified by the developers of the KLIMARISKSCAN and the ones
perceived by employees of both tour operators. Only six out of eighteen different climate
change-related risks were perceived as threatening for the company by the employees of the
two interviewed tour operators. Where employees of tour operator 1 acknowledged three
transition risks and one physical risk as a threat, employees of tour operator 2 recognized three
physical risks as threats. In addition, two new risks were added by the tour operators’
employees since these were not incorporated in the KLIMARISKSCAN. Climate change-related
risks of the KLIMARISKSCAN were rejected by the employees of tour operators due to a high
level of confidence, the small size of the tour operators, type of business model, adaptation
strategies and lack of responsibility. The climate change-related risks which were identified
were due to previous experiences.

Author: D. Schuijt (2024)

Image reference:
(Adriano, 2021)