Linking climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in events and tourism: A Case Study of Bad Essen, Germany

Resumo

Objectives | In the tourism and events literature, a distinction is usually made between climate protection and climate adaptation strategies. While climate protection strategies have been studied in the event and tourism industry for many years, the topic of climate adaptation is still a relatively young discipline (e.g. Bae & Nam, 2020; Becken & Clapcott, 2011), particularly in the context of events (Werner et al., 2023). Even less attention has been paid to the simultaneous consideration of climate mitigation and adaptation within the same destination strategy, as well as resulting synergies. This may be due to the fact that the two strategies pursue very different goals and enable different societal benefits (Kirchgeorg, 2014).

Due to the different priorities of climate protection versus climate adaptation strategies, obstacles can arise in the establishment of regulatory structures when coordinating objectives. Accordingly, the establishment of transparent as well as clear governance structures is needed to adequately address these obstacles "institutionally and instrumentally" (Baasch et al., 2012, p. 193). In the short to medium term, both strategies thus need to achieve a leap in development or an innovation in the framework. Using the town of Bad Essen in the north of Germany (a member of the “Cittaslow network”) as a case, this paper explores the following research question: How can climate protection and climate adaptation strategies be realised in one strategy and what synergies can be created for destinations?