Past and future changes of the Austrian climate – Importance for tourism

The paper summarizes changes of the climate conditions in Austria impacting tourism as part of an extended literature review. The holistic approach of the study enabled to establish the physical links between emissions created by touristic activities and resultant climate responses. Since the end of the 19th century, air temperature in Austria increased in all elevations by 1.8 °C (+20% compared to the global land areas). Depending on the scenario, a further increase of less than 2 °C (“Paris target”) to 4 °C (“worst-case scenario”; RCP 8.5) is expected until the year 2100, which means that the number of hot days either will stabilize at the current level (“Paris Target”) or current extreme years will become the new normal at the end of the century (“worst-case scenario”). Regarding snow, as the basic requirement for winter tourism, the natural snow cover duration and snow depth decreased especially in western and southern Austria. Depending on the elevation, a further decline of 10% to 40% (“Paris target”) and 50% to 90% (“worst-case scenario”), respectively, is projected until the year 2100. Sustained warming also reduces the time slots for technical snow production in all elevations. More frequent severe thunderstorms and related small-scale phenomena such as heavy precipitation, hail, squalls, small-scale floods and mudflow avalanches are to be expected to increase, especially in the worst-case scenario. Climate change effects emerge progressively in observation-based tourism-climate indicators and more sustained impacts are projected for the future. The magnitude of climate risks in the second half of the 21st century can be substantially reduced by rapid, global climate mitigation and adaptation measures.