Effects of Climate Change on Romanian Mountain Tourism: are they positive or mostly negative?

Abstract

Climate change represents a real threat for the winter sport resorts, especially those situated at low altitudes and without any diversification of the tourism product. Mountain tourism represents a real attraction for the holidays and for short weekends being mostly visited by tourists in summer and winter season, which make them more vulnerable to the lack of snow in the cold season, floods, storms or even heat waves. This paper has two main objectives, firstly to measure the impact of the climate change on tourism demand for Romanian mountain tourism, and secondly to identify sustainable solutions for adaptation of vulnerable mountain resorts, such as Sinaia, one of the most known winter sport resorts in Romania. First, the authors will identify the impacts of climate change on Romanian mountain tourism, starting with the effect of the temperature increase, snow depth variation and the extreme weather events occurring in mountain resorts on tourist flows. Positive and negative effects of climate change will be identified, and starting from the results, the authors will present necessary measures to transform the Romanian mountain tourism in an adaptive destination.