Climate change and winter tourism: evidence from Italy

Gioia Maria Mariani () and Diego Scalise ()
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Gioia Maria Mariani: Banca d'Italia
Diego Scalise: Banca d'Italia

No 743, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Increasing temperatures and snow-scarce winter seasons challenge the winter tourism industry, one of the most weather-sensitive economic sectors. In this paper we assemble a novel dataset matching weather conditions and tourism flows in a sample of 39 Italian ski resorts in the last 20 years. We study the relationship between snow conditions, ski passes and overnight stays at ski resort level by means of a panel estimator with double fixed effects to quantify the risk of tourism losses due to climate change. We estimate a positive and significant relationship between snowfall conditions and winter tourism flows in Italian Alpine resorts. According to our estimates and to consensus projections on climate variables, in the coming years the impacts of climate change on ski passes and overnight stays could be significant, especially at lower altitudes. We also find evidence that providing artificial snow only has a weak effect on winter tourism flows, pointing toward the need for a more comprehensive approach to adaptation strategies.

Keywords: Climate change; winter tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q51 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env, nep-eur and nep-tur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_743_22

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