Disaster risk management for coastal tourism destinations responding to climate change: A practical guide for decision makers

The sustainability of coastal tourism destinations depends partly on their ability to adapt planning and management practices to the impacts of climate change and also to increase their ability to effectively manage natural disasters. Climate change will exacerbate weather-related disasters that will be not only more frequent but also more powerful and consequently will put coastal tourism destinations in an almost constant state of alert. Experience has shown, time and again, that it is local people who are best placed to save lives and to coordinate the return to normality. It is the degree to which people are prepared for disasters that determines how vulnerable or resilient their community will be. The handbook provides disaster managers, local and municipal and community planners, as well as other stakeholders in the tourism sector with a practical guidance on how to better prepare for disasters in coastal destinations.