Page 95 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

Aysun Aygün Oğur

Introduction

Climate is an important factor in directing the tourist demands in tourism
sectors. Climate also plays a role in the decisions of tourists on tourist
destinations, seasons to travel, and the periods of stay in the preferred
destinations. Types of tourism such as ski tourism, ecotourism, sea tourism need
certain climatic conditions, and thus sensitive to climate events (Amelung et al,
2007). The sector, which contributes a great deal to global economy by 10,4%
and employment by 10% (WTTC, 2019), is vulnerable to climate, which has long
been ignored, and climate has been seen as a given, unchanging feature of a
destination (Smith, 1993; Harrison et al., 1999; Lise and Tol, 2002; Li et al., 2018).
However, as the obvious effects of global climate change on natural areas,
living areas, human life and economic sectors were observed, people began to
understand the importance of climate factor in tourism sector as well. With the
increased awareness, there has been an increase in the researches in this field.
The increasing temperatures, changes in sea levels, variations in precipitation
amount and frequency, and the destruction of nature will inevitably change
the locational distribution of tourism demand and the pattern of tourist flow
(Solomon et al., 2007; Nadal, 2014). The decrease in precipitation will cause
a fall in the amount of snow in tourism centers, causing a decline in winter
sports and thus affecting tourism negatively. (IPCC, 2018). This situation will
also lead water resources to diminish, and pose the risk of failure to meet the
demand for water by the increasing number of tourists, causing water scarcity
(Becken, 2014). In addition, the extreme weather conditions such as storms and
hurricanes, which increase in frequency and severity due to climate chance,
lead to safety issues (Scott, 2003). Moreover, extremely high temperatures are
expected to cause discomfort, resulting in a change in tourism seasons and
popular tourism destinations (Grillakis et al., 2016; IPCC, 2018; Aygün Oğur and
Baycan, 2022). It is observed that the region’s most vulnerable to the effects of
climate change are those that have adopted an economic development model
based on tourism. (Scott et al., 2019).
The Mediterranean Region is one of the leading popular summer tourism
destinations today. Türkiye was the 6th country to attract most tourists.
However, it comes 13th in terms of tourism revenues (UNWTO, 2020).
Especially in summer months, Türkiye is popular with sun and beach tourism
thanks to its suitable climatic conditions, unique beaches and natural beauties.
However, the climate change projections emphasize that the Mediterranean
Region is under great threat, pointing at the climate changes that will affect
tourism sector negatively (IPCC, 2018). As the extremely high temperatures
in the Mediterranean Region affect the climate especially in summer months
and cause uncomfortable conditions, this may decrease tourism demands

80 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate,