Impacts of climate change for Swiss winter and summer tourism: a general equilibrium analysis

Tourism could be greatly affected by climate change due to its strong dependence on weather. In Switzerland, the sector represents an appreciable share of the economy. Thus, studying climate effects on tourism is necessary for developing adequate adaptation strategies. While most of the studies focused on winter tourism, we investigate the climate change impacts on both winter and summer tourism in Switzerland. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, we simulate the impacts of temperature increase and snow decrease for climate scenarios A1B and RCP3PD. Our findings show that climate change has a positive effect on the Swiss tourism industry. Alpine resorts could adapt by developing their summer tourism offer. However, impacts are differentiated. While low-altitude ski resorts are more vulnerable to a snow decrease, high-altitude resorts benefit from their comparative advantage with respect to lower resorts in Switzerland and in Europe.