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Climate change presents significant challenges for the sustainability of the tourism sector. Tourismdestinations in developing countries have been identified as the most vulnerable to the impacts ofclimate change; however, little is known about the situation of climate change and the tourism sectorin the developing world, despite the relative importance of tourism to the local economies. Buildingadaptive capacity is important to increase the capability of the local destination communitystakeholders to manage the impacts of climate change on their business and on the broaderdestination. Considerable adaptation research has been conducted; however, adaptation discourses inthe tourism sector are still predominantly focused on responding to the predicted impacts of futureclimate change rather than addressing the underlying factors that affect the vulnerability and adaptivecapacity of tourism destinations and local community stakeholders.Recent research in social ecological systems has indicated that learning is an essential aspect ofbuilding adaptive capacity. In this context, social learning is emerging as an adaptation approach thataddresses issues hindering adaptation, such as a lack of knowledge and awareness, and encourages aproactive response by human systems to climate change. Underpinned by the theories of climatechange adaptation and social learning, this research seeks to understand the influence of learning ona destination community’s responses to the impacts of climate change. The aim of this research wassupported by four interrelated research objectives: 1) to examine community knowledge of climatechange, 2) to identify the sources of information utilised by the community to construct climatechange knowledge and the spaces used for knowledge sharing and learning, 3) to assess how localdestination community stakeholders have applied their existing knowledge to adapt to climate change,and 4) to identify and assess the factors influencing the capacity of local destination stakeholders tolearn to adapt to climate change.This research employed a qualitative, constructivist methodology to investigate the research issue inthe context of the city of Hoi An, a well-known tourism destination in Vietnam. Semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with 54 participants who represented a broad range of local destinationcommunity stakeholders (i.e., local government authorities, tourism businesses, residents,community-based organisations) and expert stakeholders who have knowledge about the scope ofthis research.The thesis reveals the following key findings. The overall conclusion is that the responses of Hoi Ancommunity stakeholders to the impacts of climate change are strongly determined by their perceptionsof the importance of climate change to their businesses and to the broader destination; their ability to acquire the necessary climate-related knowledge; and their ability to apply this acquired knowledgeto decision making and actions to respond to the impacts of climate change. The study found thatlocal community stakeholders are highly concerned about climate change and hold a basic knowledgeof the impacts and implications of climate change on the destination and solutions for dealing withclimate-change effects. Such knowledge is primarily developed from personal experiences withclimatic events and traditional ecological knowledge about weather and environment, and partlylearnt from the media and participation in environmental education workshops. To a certain extent,social learning regarding climate change is also evident through formal interactions amongdestination community stakeholders with external stakeholders such as development agencies,researchers and government at different levels (particularly environmental authorities) which areimportant for transferring and developing scientific knowledge. Results of this research indicate thatknowledge has been used effectively in some respects to inform strategies to exploit the opportunitiesarising from changes and moderating the risks resulting from the negative impacts of climate change.Despite this, many responses to climate change in this community are still reactive and short-term,rather than being long-term and anticipatory of future changes. The study indicates that a lack ofknowledge for climate-change adaptation, especially tourism-specific climate-change knowledge; thelimitations in climate-change communication and learning facilitation; and constraints relating togovernment empowerment and finance have overwhelmed the capacity of destination communitystakeholders to learn and adapt to the impacts of climate change.This research makes several key contributions to the tourism and climate-change research literature.It has shown how learning could be used as an approach to enhance adaptive capacity and adaptationto climate change by local tourism stakeholders. It has shown clear evidence that climate change isimportant enough for vulnerable tourism destinations and communities to require immediate action.It also contributes to bridging the knowledge gaps about climate change and tourism in developingcountries; this is of particular significance given the relative importance of the tourism sector to theselocal economies. This thesis also extends the applicability of the concept of social learning in thecontext of tourism destinations by demonstrating that social and political factors, such as the multileveladministrative and tourism governance systems in Vietnam, can influence learning andadaptation to climate change at the community level. |
