Recreation Business Commons^™

Tourism-Related Climate Change Perspectives: Social Media Conversations About Canada’S Rocky Mountain National Parks, Farshid Mirzaalian, Elizabeth Halpenny

TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

This study employed quantitative social media big data analysis in conjunction with qualitative analysis of postings to better comprehend online lay discourse of climatic change issues in a nature-based tourism destination, Jasper National Park, Canada. Such mixed methodological approaches to big data enable tourism researchers to not only study unstructured social media big data for future-proofing purposes but to address some methodological concerns often raised about solely using corpus linguistic or thematic analyzes. This study unearthed divergent themes regarding tourists’ perceptions of climate change upon visiting JNP, with the most significant discourses on climate grief, education and interpretation, pro- environmental …

Economic Contributions Of Winter Sports In A Changing Climate, Hagenstad Consulting, Inc., Elizabeth Burakowski, Rebecca Hill

Earth Systems Research Center

In mountain towns across the United States that rely on winter tourism, snow is

currency. For snow lovers and the winter sports industry, predictions of a future with

warmer winters, reduced snowfall, and shorter snow seasons is inspiring them to

innovate, increase their own efforts to address emissions, and speak publicly on the

urgent need for action.

This report examines the economic contribution of winter snow sports tourism to

U.S. national and state-level economies. In a 2012 analysis, Protect Our Winters and

the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the winter sports tourism industry

generates $12.2 billion and 23 million …