‘Changes in climate will hit tourism’

The tourism industry, which provides livelihoods for 255 million people worldwide, faces impacts of rising temperatures and more extreme weather, the report based on the findings of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. Warming temperatures will reduce the number of ski resorts which reliably get snow and shorten the ski season, warned the report from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the Cambridge Judge Business School and the European Climate Foundation.

Coastal tourism sites are vulnerable to rising sea levels while more storms will see beaches erode, the report suggests.

A sea-level increase of one metre would damage up to 60 per cent of resort properties in the Caribbean.

Stephen Farrant, director of the International Tourism Partnership, said: “Every part of the industry needs to take note of its warnings.”