Climate change impacts on destination choice : a case of Peniche

Abstract

As climate change gains more concern from global context, the literature in this area is growing rapidly, especially giving more attention to the researches on the relationship between climate change and tourism. This thesis examines the potential impacts of climate change on destination choice and how these impacts may influence choice of tourists visiting Peniche. Therefore, Peniche, a small coastal city in Portugal, has been chosen as a case study and quantitative method was applied for the research through conducting a questionnaire to the domestic and international tourists visiting Peniche. The findings show that despite of climate change impacts, the majority of respondents will still travel to Peniche, but not in the peak seasons. The research concludes that as it is expected, climate change will influence destination choice and timing of travel through shifting peak seasons to shoulder seasons. The thesis contributes to the limited climate-related research in Portugal.