Climate Change and Tourism
ATLAS Special Interest Group
Climate Change and Tourism
The coordinator for this Special Interest Group is:
Ioanna Farsari – Dalarna University, Sweden
Climate change has come as a disruption to our usual practices. Social movements and activism such as the Friday school strike has brought it to the everyday discussions. Climate change has challenged also tourism scholars to think outside their local territories to accommodate issues of global social and environmental change (Espiner et al., 2017). In spite of its alarming nature and tourism’s contribution to climate change, tourism remains the sector with the least responsiveness in taking measures to mitigate its carbon footprint (Scott et al., 2016).
The SIG is developed on the understanding of the mutual effects of Tourism on climate change and vice versa, of climate change onto tourism. It acknowledges also the inter and trans disciplinary character of the research on the field and invites contributions from a variety of fields, disciplines, and expertise to encourage the development of shared research agendas which manage to capture the complexity of CC and tourism.
It also acknowledges the accuracy of the matter and the need to relate to stakeholders, policy makers and the wider public in an effort to develop relevant research as well as to disseminate research results to a wider audience for a greater impact. Knowledge sharing and co-creation are deemed important and this SIG aims to offer a fertile ground for the encouragement of collaborations and the development of new, creative, and innovative research.
If you want to contact the SIG coordinator, please fill in the form HERE
If you want to join this SIG, please fill in the form HERE
ATLAS SIG Soundbite 10 – Climate Change and Tourism
In the ATLAS SIG Soundbites series the different ATLAS Special Interest Groups tell about their SIG.
Annual review of activities – 2026
The activities undertaken during this year include:
We have organised the special track in 2025 Annual conference in Vila- Seca, with the theme “Climate Change and Circular Economy Principles in an Age of Environmental and Societal Transformations” together with the SIG on ‘Circular Economy in the space of Tourism and Hospitality’. Track convenors: Ioanna Farsari, Dalarna University; and Lucia Tomassini, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands.
Following the presentation of the thesis on academic mobility in that conference (an outcome of the academic mobility initiative of the SIG), Ioanna is looking into opportunities to publish an article or research note on it.
We have also recorded a soundbite as an interview with the SIGs coordinator to share via ATLAS website. This interview presents the unique characteristics of this group as a grassroots movement from ATLAS scholars and its identity around transformative research.
Ioanna has also contributed with a text on BUAS UNCOVER magazine with a special focus on 2026 Issue on “Challenges and ethical issues in relation to having impact, working on a better society, SDGs, sustainability transitions, practical relevance case/project/example”. The SIG on CC and Tourism was one of the ATLAS SIGs to be presented there and invited to contribute with a text discussing the challenges and ethical issues in working with sustainability transformations, and some practical example of how to ‘walk the talk’ of transformations for climate change and sustainability.
The SIG has remained quite inactive during this period and no special track is planned for 2026 ATLAS Annual Conference. The SIG coordinator has expressed the intention to leave the chair of the SIG to some colleague or co-chair it. However, up to now there has not been any replacement found. There are discussions for merging the group with other groups and the collaboration will other SIG will continue.