Regional Mountain Conference

Contemporary society and the environment are vividly and devastatingly confronted with the impacts of climate change. Although we have moved beyond neglecting or ignoring these impacts, the question remains whether our current actions are sufficient. It must be acknowledged, however, that significant progress has been made, particularly in raising awareness of the importance of this issue. This progress is especially relevant for the tourism system, as it both contributes to and suffers from the impacts of climate change. Mountain regions are particularly vulnerable in this regard, and tourism stakeholders have a significant responsibility to create risk scenarios and adaptation strategies to ensure the sustainability of destinations and the prosperity of local communities.

The aim of this research is to address the issue of climate adaptation and risk research in mountain regions of the Republic of Croatia. Through primary research among tourist boards in these areas, the objective is to examine whether, and to what extent, these organisations perceive the importance of developing climate risk scenarios and how they incorporate them into tourism development policies, using a questionnaire as the research instrument. As mountain regions in Croatia do not rely heavily on tourism development, the aim is to address this issue from the perspective of the tourism destination lifecycle. Climate justice is the central concept upon which recommendations for future policies are based, taking sustainability criteria into account. As parts of these regions in Croatia face the challenge of depopulation, incorporating the principles of climate justice emerges as the key strategy for their revitalisation. Given that the new legislative framework has equipped tourist boards with the tools and instruments to monitor and manage tourism development, the scientific contribution of this research lies in linking the level of awareness about the impacts of climate change with the stage of the tourism destination lifecycle, and in addressing the issue of climate justice in tourism development strategies.