Tourism on major Alpine glacier sites in the age of climate change

Six major sites have been selected in France, Switzerland and Austria to carry out field surveys along two lines. The first involves stakeholders in the areas concerned, and aims to understand how climate change is impacting tourist activities around glaciers, and how stakeholders are adapting to these changes. A geo-historical approach also enables us to understand how the latter have adapted to glacial fluctuations since the end of the Little Ice Age (1850).

A second focus is the impact of glacial retreat on visitors to the sites. Quantitative and qualitative surveys are used to study visitor motivations and the development of “last chance tourism” around glaciers. The aim is also to understand how landscape changes are perceived by visitors. Finally, we’ll be looking at how visiting glaciers can have an impact on awareness of environmental change, and on the adoption of behaviours designed to protect the environment.

In connection with his work, Emmanuel Salim co-wrote, with Christophe Gauchon and Ludovic Ravanel (Edytem), the article Voir la glace. Tour d’horizon des sites touristiques glaciaires alpins, entre post et hyper-modernités in the Revue de géographie alpine.