Private

FS 26.101

Managing Pathways toward Social Sustainability in Mountain Destinations

Session status: Accepted

Content last updated: 2026-04-16 00:06:27

Online available since: 2025-12-15 11:17:00

Details

Full Title
Community Consideration, Responsibility, and Accessibility: Innovative Management Pathways for Socially Sustainable Destination Transformation
Scheduled
TBA
TBA
Chair
Pikkemaat, Birgit
Co-chair(s)
Schönherr, Sarah; Peters, Mike; and Nigg, Joachim
Thematic Focus
Adaption, Equality, Spatial Planning, Sustainable Development, Tourism
Keywords
Accessible tourism, Tourism governance, Stakeholder interaction, Residents, Socially sustainable tourism

Abstract/Description

The content was (partly) adapted by AI

This session advances knowledge on the social dimension of sustainable tourism development by analysing transformations to community-focused, accessible, and inclusive approaches in mountain destinations. Special emphasis is placed on small, spatially constrained communities, including analyses of tourism impacts on everyday life and local infrastructure, as well as its implications for destination planning under limited resources (e.g., space, housing, labour, and public services). Possible contributions may engage with (but are not limited to) the following research avenues: Governance and community voice: Analyses on how governance arrangements and co-design processes shape representation, legitimacy, and decision-making, particularly where external interests are at the core while local priorities are neglected. Accessibility and inclusion in tourism: Examinations on how mountain destination stakeholders address accessible tourism. This includes both social perceptions for- and self-perceptions of people with disability and the allocation of responsibilities across public/private actors throughout the implementation of accessible tourism. Responsibility for sustainable tourism development: Examining how different stakeholders in mountain destinations perceive and approach sustainable tourism development. Who is responsible for implementing sustainability, and how do various actors demonstrate responsible behavior? Managing concentrated pressures and social impacts: Investigations of stakeholder reactions to crowding in sensitive settings (e.g., thresholds and zoning, benefit-sharing, community-led initiatives, reinvestment in local infrastructure). This refers to social impacts of over-tourism on cohesion or residents’ everyday wellbeing, defining approaches to assess and address these. Resident – tourist interactions: Encounters between residents and tourists create reciprocal influences that shape how residents experience their community in different roles. These interactions form a core component of the overall experience for both groups, shaping tourists’ perceptions of the destination and fostering loyalty, while also determining residents’ support for tourism development.

By integrating these perspectives, the session will enhance discussions on stakeholder interests in the evolution of socially sustainable tourism in mountain regions.

Registered Abstracts

ID: 3.9

Resource requirements and carbon emissions from snowmaking and slope preparation

Günther Aigner
Aigner, Günther

Abstract/Description

Introduction & Purpose
Ski tourism is threatened by global warming (François et al., 2023), while snowmaking is considered an important adaptation measure (Steiger et al., 2021). The resource requirements (water and electricity) and the associated CO₂ emissions are the subject of critical debates in the scientific community and the public (Knowles et al., 2023; ORF, 2023). Since the use of snowmaking is steadily increasing (Knowles et al., 2023), this study focuses on the latest data (seasons 2022/23 to 2024/25), including slope preparation and its fuel consumption.

Methods
A questionnaire was sent to all member companies via the professional associations of cable car operators in Austria, Germany, and South Tyrol (Italy) and to ski resorts in Switzerland. 39 ski resorts sent data of sufficient quality, representing 15 % of the total ski tourism volume in the Alps.

Results
On average across the entire sample 3,857 m³ of water is converted into snow per hectare of slope area equipped with snowmaking infrastructure, that is 884 liters per skier visit. Energy consumption amounts to 23,735 kWh per hectare and 5,4 kWh per skier visit. 79.2 % of the slope area in the sample can be covered with machine-made snow. The amount of fuel required for slope preparation is 1,927 liters per hectare of total slope area and 0.56 liters per skier visit. Of this fuel volume, 69.5 percent is diesel and 30.5 percent is the plant-based diesel substitute HVO. Total CO₂ emissions from snowmaking and slope preparation amount to 1.23 kg per skier visit, when assuming a hydroelectric-based electricity mix.

Discussion
The analysis of the seasons 2022/23 to 2024/25 shows an increase in water demand and energy consumption compared to previous studies (Aigner et al., 2025). The switch from diesel to HVO diesel substitute is the biggest lever in terms of CO₂ emissions in slope preparation, resulting in an 89% reduction. In ski resorts that have completely switched to HVO diesel substitute, the CO₂ footprint of all slope preparation, including snowmaking, is 317 g per skier visit. This is equivalent to driving 2.3 km in a diesel car (Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz, 2023).

Conclusion
An electricity mix based on renewable sources and the switch to HVO diesel substitute can substantially reduce the carbon footprint of slope preparation and snowmaking.

References
Aigner, G., Steiger, R., & Mayer, M. (2025). Snowmaking in Austria: Key data, resource consumption and CO2 emissions. International Mountain Conference, Innsbruck, Austria. Conference presentation.

Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz (2024) Monitoringbericht zu den CO2-Emissionen neu zugelassener PKW in Österreich im Jahr 2023. No direct link, but the PDF can be googled and downloaded. PDF last downloaded on January 27^th, 2026.

François, H., Samacoits, R., Bird, D., Köberl, J., Prettenthaler, F., & Morin, S. (2023). Climate change exacerbates snow-water-energy challenges for European ski tourism. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01759-5

Knowles, N., Scott, D., & Steiger, R. (2023). Sustainability of Snowmaking as Climate Change (mal)Adaptation: An Assessment of Water, Energy, and Emissions in Canada’s Ski Industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(10), 1613–1630. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2023.2214358

ORF (2023). Studie: Energiebedarf für Kunstschnee nimmt zu. ORF Tirol. Article published on November 14th, 2023. Accessed January 27th, 2026. https://tirol.orf.at/stories/3232405/

Steiger, R., Damm, A., Prettenthaler, F., & Pröbstl-Haider, U. (2021). Climate change and winter outdoor activities in Austria. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 34, 100330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2020.100330

ID: 3.12

Adaptive Capacity and Climate Adaptation in German Cross-Country Skiing Destinations

Lukas Schmidt
Ziehmann, Laszlo; Schumann, Johanna; Röttger, Christian; Limmer, Mirjam; Roth, Ralf

Abstract/Description

Cross-country skiing destinations in mountainous regions are socially and culturally significant yet face increasing pressure to adapt and sustainably develop their infrastructure and management practices under climate change. This two-study project assesses the adaptive capacity and climate adaptation practices of German cross-country skiing destinations. The first study examines adaptive capacity to understand how destinations can respond to climate impacts and risks. Using survey data of operators from German cross-country skiing destinations (N=42), cross-country skiing-specific indicators were developed to assess key determinants of adaptive capacity. The data were normalized and aggregated into a composite adaptive capacity index, enabling comparisons across destinations. Results show that, apart from a few highly adaptive destinations, most exhibit moderate to low adaptive capacity. Major challenges relate to technology (e.g., snowmaking and snow farming), physical conditions (e.g., elevation and operating days), and access to climate data. However, many destinations display strengths in social capital, such as local networks and value creation, as well as tourism infrastructure that could support transformation processes.

The second study combines a climate analysis with semi-structured interviews at ten German cross-country skiing destinations to gain deeper insights into adaptation processes at the destination level. The destinations varied in location, size, infrastructure, and operating structures. The climate analysis examined projected changes in temperature, wet-bulb temperature, snow depth, and snowfall up to 2060 relative to the reference period 1986–2005. Interviews with destination managers addressed observed climate impacts, adaptation types, barriers and enabling factors, and future perspectives. Results indicate that small, low-elevation, club-managed destinations are most strongly affected and face the greatest challenges, whereas larger destinations – often managed by DMOs or independently – can respond more effectively. Adaptation is mainly incremental and planned, though planned measures often enable autonomous adaptation at the operational level. While larger destinations increasingly pursue transformational strategies such as activity diversification, smaller destinations remain largely confined to coping or incremental adaptation. Financial constraints accompany all adaptations, regardless of the destination or adaptation type.

ID: 3.35

Towards a better understanding of unskilled skiers’ attachments to ski destinations

Kinga Krzesiwo

Abstract/Description

Addressing the needs of unskilled skiers, i.e. those with low-to-medium proficiency, is becoming a critical challenge for the ski industry in emerging markets in Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and due to socio-demographic changes in established markets in Western Europe and North America. Tourism studies have thus far lacked detailed analyses dedicated to this group of skiers. The research aimed to identify the motivational factors underlying ski resort choice among unskilled skiers and to evaluate the extent to which these factors serve as predictors of destination attachment within this segment of skiers. Empirical data were collected through a survey among a sample of 414 skiers. The obtained quantitative data were subjected to statistical procedures, including Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) based on Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression. The findings indicate that ski resort attributes such as ski infrastructure and ski services, complementary services, and the spatial context play a pivotal role in the choice-making process of ski destinations within the examined segment. An analysis of latent factors based on structural equation modelling unveiled that ski resort attributes imply its atmosphere and predict ski destination attachment among non-advanced skiers. The managerial implications of the study underscore the importance of place atmosphere and emotional attachment to ski resorts as factors that enhance the gravitational pull of unskilled skiers, promote their loyalty to the destination, and contribute to the sustainable development of ski resorts.

ID: 3.30

Rethinking Resident Support in Heritage Tourism: A Social Sustainability Perspective from a Chinese Mountain Destination

Tao Duan
Coles, Tim; Shaw, Gareth

Abstract/Description

Resident support is widely recognised as a key condition for sustainable heritage tourism development, yet it is often conceptualised as a measurable and largely linear attitudinal outcome. Such simplification obscures the socially embedded, dynamic and historically situated nature of support, particularly in heritage mountain destinations where residents simultaneously act as heritage custodians, tourism workers and everyday hosts. When these multiple roles are overlooked, resident support becomes difficult to interpret, leading to governance and policy interventions based on fragile assumptions.

This study argues that resident support should be understood as a dynamic social process rather than a static evaluative position. Adopting a social sustainability perspective, the research rethinks resident support by introducing a temporal dimension that captures how attitudes are shaped by residents’ experiences of the past, evaluations of the present and expectations for the future. Rather than redefining the concept itself, the study focuses on identifying the social, economic and governance-related mechanisms through which differentiated forms of support are produced.

Empirically, the research draws on a large-scale quantitative survey conducted in Mt. Lu, a major Chinese mountain heritage destination characterised by strong tourism dependence and the close interweaving of cultural and natural heritage. Survey data from 501 residents reveal a structured attitudinal system comprising multiple latent dimensions across Place Attachment, Community Involvement and Resident Support. Cluster analysis further identifies three resident groups—Low-supporters, Qualified-supporters and High-supporters—each exhibiting distinct configurations of value orientations, behavioural engagement and evaluative judgements.

The findings demonstrate that resident support does not operate along a simple continuum from opposition to endorsement, but emerges through qualitatively different combinations of affective, behavioural and evaluative orientations. By reframing resident support through a social sustainability lens, the study contributes conceptually to debates on resident–destination relations, empirically to heritage mountain tourism research in China, and analytically to more socially attuned approaches to destination governance and transformation.

ID: 3.40

Nobody ever asked for it – Mansplaining and flow experience in alpine outdoor winter sports

Denise Fecker
Bosio, Birgit; Nadegger, Monica

Abstract/Description

Problem statement/research question: Mansplaining, commonly described as unsolicited, gendered explanations, represents a form of interaction that may negatively influence psychological experiences in performance-related contexts. While such behaviors have been discussed in everyday and organizational settings such as the workplace, their potential relevance in sport contexts remains largely unexplored. This study investigates the prevalence and characteristics of mansplaining within alpine outdoor winter sports. It further examines whether experiences of mansplaining in these contexts are associated with participants’ perceived flow experiences during activity engagement, and whether these associations vary by gender.

Methodology: Data will be collected using an online survey among active outdoor winter sports participants in April 2026. The study will employ multiple inferential statistical techniques to assess the relationships between mansplaining, flow experiences, and gender.

Originality: By addressing an understudied social phenomenon in a sport-specific context, this study seeks to provide initial insights into how gendered interaction experiences may relate to psychological outcomes relevant for sport participation and performance. Such insights are crucial for developing strategies for outdoor sports providers and associations to address discrimination and facilitate inclusive outdoor sports structures.

ID: 3.119

Real-World Laboratories for Socially Sustainable Mountain Destinations: Insights from a Real-World Laboratory in the Stubai Valley

Lukas Schmidt
Ziehmann, Laszlo; Roth, Ralf; Uphoff, Julia

Abstract/Description

Mountain destinations increasingly face the challenge of balancing rising outdoor tourism demand with social responsibility, accessibility, community well-being and climate adaption. Innovative management pathways are required to ensure that destination development supports socially sustainable transformation rather than exacerbating spatial conflicts, exclusion or safety risks. Real-world laboratories offer a promising approach to address these challenges by embedding research directly within destination contexts and fostering continuous exchange between science, practice and local stakeholders.

Since 2016, the Institute for Outdoor Sport and Environmental Science (IOSU) has accompanied the sustainable development of the Stubai Valley (Tyrol, Austria) as an outdoor destination functioning as a real-world laboratory. Central to this long-term cooperation is the WildeWasserWeg, a core tourism product that combines barrier-free sections and viewing platforms with more demanding trail segments to address accessibility, inclusion and diverse user needs. On behalf of the Tourism Association Stubai Tirol, IOSU implemented a long-term visitor monitoring programme capturing spatial and temporal use patterns, visitor intensities, weather influences, and user behaviour and satisfaction. These data provide an empirical basis for responsible visitor management, infrastructure adaptation and socially sensitive product development that balances visitor experience with local capacity limits.

Building on this foundation, a series of student theses and a doctoral dissertation expanded the real-world laboratory by integrating GPS-based movement analysis, surveys and behavioural modelling. The research addressed spatial concentration, discrepancies between planned and actual walking times, and individual performance variability within hiking groups. Resulting recommendations focused on inclusive information and guidance systems, improved communication of route requirements and safety, and measures supporting both accessibility and accident prevention.

Across all projects, IOSU acted as a knowledge broker at the science–practice interface, translating empirical findings into decision-relevant insights while incorporating community, management and practitioner perspectives into research design. The Stubai Valley case illustrates how real-world laboratories can enable socially sustainable destination transformation through responsible knowledge brokerage in mountain regions.

ID: 3.202

Anchoring climate futures : evaluating the Mountain Tourism Fresco as a serious game for alpine destination transitions

Ivan Minguez

Abstract/Description

Serious games are structured, rule-based devices designed to support learning and deliberation on complex issues by combining modelling, facilitation, and collective reflection. In mountain tourism, they can make interdependencies, responsibilities, and trade-offs discussable across heterogeneous actors, while remaining accessible to participants with diverse expertise. This paper examines the application and effects of a place-based serious game in a Swiss Alpine destination context through the Mountain Tourism Fresco, developed within the Swiss national research programme SWEET Lantern and implemented as a case study in a series of workshops organiced in Verbier–Val de Bagnes.

The Mountain Tourism Fresco is a three-hour workshop. The first phase combines a territorial map with a card system that structures causal chains linking tourism-related practices and drivers to climate change in the Alps, and to impacts on tourism. Participants then discuss mitigation and adaptation actions as “solutions” options to maintain tourism activities under changing conditions. A second phase mobilises narrative tourism personas (e.g., residents, workers, second-home owners, visitors, decision-makers) to explore differentiated constraints and leverage points in 2050-oriented scenarios.

Empirically, the study relies on a mixed-methods design combining three survey waves (pre, immediate post, follow-up), participant observation across four workshops, and semi-structured interviews with participants and local tourism stakeholders (e.g., destination and municipal actors, practitioners, business representatives). The analysis focuses on how the game operates as a mediation and boundary-object device in destination transition processes: how it supports territorialised problem framing, articulates responsibilities across roles, and sustains attention to climate-related transformation questions beyond the workshop setting. Findings are discussed with caution given voluntary participation and a limited number of respondents, which constrains statistical inference and the generalisability of quantitative patterns.

ID: 3.211

Stakeholder perspectives on destination resilience in rural mountain tourism

Sarah Schönherr
Salukvadze, Gvantsa; Gugushvili, Temur; Graiff, Lukas

Abstract/Description

Rural mountain destinations that depend heavily on tourism face increasing pressures from climate change, economic instability, and public health crises. Despite the growing relevance of resilience in tourism research, destination-level resilience in rural mountain contexts remains underexplored. This study investigates how tourism stakeholders perceive resilience in two mountain tourism destinations: the Kaunertal region in Tyrol, Austria, and Mestia in Svaneti, Georgia.

Using a qualitative comparative case study design, data were collected through five focus group workshops with tourism stakeholders (n = 25). The discussions explored experiences with past crises and perceptions of resilience at the destination level. Data were analyzed following the flexible pattern matching approach.

The findings identify three key dimensions of destination resilience: community, vulnerability and health, and economy. Stakeholders in both regions emphasized the importance of social cohesion, informal cooperation, and volunteer engagement for effective crisis response. Hazard preparedness and emergency coordination were also highlighted, with Austrian stakeholders referring to established preventive infrastructure, while Georgian participants pointed to gaps in formal coordination and risk mapping. Economically, participants stressed diversification, local value creation, and reduced dependence on external markets as critical resilience strategies.

The study highlights the importance of combining local knowledge and informal practices with formal monitoring and indicators. It contributes to a contextual understanding of destination resilience and provides insights for developing measurement tools and governance strategies for rural mountain tourism destinations.

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FS 26.101

Managing Pathways toward Social Sustainability in Mountain Destinations

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