Médiadapt – adapting glacier tourism sites to climate change

The Mediadapt project – Mediation as a climate change adaptation strategy for glacier tourism sites: discourses, actor games and visitor experience – focuses in particular on the emergence of “last chance tourism”, where many visitors come to see glaciers with the idea of being able to contemplate them before they disappear.

At the same time, numerous glacier interpretation centers have sprung up, enabling visitors to learn more about glaciers and related processes.

However, a number of questions remain about these centers:

• Why and in what contexts have tourism operators and local players embarked on their development?
• Do they really help to improve visitors’ understanding of the complex phenomena of climate change and glacial retreat? How can we produce a discourse accessible to the greatest number of visitors without simplifying or even caricaturing the processes involved?
• To what extent do these glacier interpretation centers seek to promote pro-environmental behaviour, and how does visiting these sites impact on visitor behaviour?
• Can we sketch out some proposals for correcting any confusion and amalgams regarding the scientific mediation offered to visitors?

This research project, which is part of a wider doctoral program on glacier tourism, aims to answer these questions both from a theoretical point of view and by seeking to provide tourism operators with the keys to fostering a discourse that best fits in with current issues.