Climate change and challenges for tourism in Central America

Abstract

This paper looks at the different Central American countries’ tourism characteristics and vulnerability to climate change phenomena; compares the different situations of tourist sites among the countries of the region; looks into the legal and institutional framework that has been developed regarding environment protection and climate change in each country under study, analyzing its progress and limitations; explores the determinants of tourism demand in the past, including the role of hurricanes and other external shocks on the flow of tourists and, finally, suggest some adaptation policies mostly for leisure tourism.

The paper states that tourist sites are particularly sensitive to increasingly strength and occurrence of climate phenomena, but little is being done to adapt to these activities. Leisure tourism traveling to the region in mid year will be the one mostly affected by climate change.