Climate Change-induced Effects on Beach Degradation and Tourist Behaviour: A review of previous studies with potential in an island tourism context

This article conducts a qualitative meta-analysis of papers addressing the topic of climate change impacts on beach loss and degradation, and its relation to tourist behaviour (destination choice, willingness to re-visit, expenditure and willingness to pay). The main aim is to identify values that can be used in future research works in the context of island tourism. We found that the strong specialisation and fragmentation of data and methods limit the transferability potential of previous research analysing climate-induced effects on beaches and tourist behaviour. Researchers from different fields bring their own conceptual models which often address similar problems but use different lenses and measurement units. Among the available studies, the ones with usable potential in a value transfer context are related to willingness to pay for adaptation measures. Overall, findings confirm that a greater transparency in the methodologies used to elicit values and a multidisciplinary approach are needed to ensure a more sustainable use of the information in order to fill knowledge gaps that still hinder the study of climate change.