Winter tourism is highly sensitive to climate change. The sufficiently studied altitudinally dependent line of natural snow reliability is losing its relevance for skilift operators in Austria, where 59% of the ski area is covered by artificial snowmaking. But the diffusion of snowmaking facilities cannot be monocausally linked to climate change, as trends in tourism, prestige, and competitive advantage are important factors. Despite the fact that snowmaking is limited by climatological factors, skilift operators trust in technical improvements and believe the future will not be as menacing as assumed by recent climate change impact studies. The aim of the present study is to define reasons for the diffusion of snowmaking systems and to determine whether snowmaking can be a viable adaptation strategy despite ongoing warming, using a simple degree-day model. Results obtained with this method of assessing technical snow reliability show that current snowmaking intensity will not be sufficient to gu...

German national parks are increasingly under pressure from land use change and need objective information on economic values associated with different forms of use to help policy-makers resolve conflicting policy goals. To date, a complete cost–benefit analysis of a German national park has not been undertaken. This paper addresses this gap through a study from the Bavarian Forest National Park (BFNP), the oldest and best known park in Germany. The research questions are: (1) Is the designation of the national park economically justified? and (2) Can revenue from park tourism compensate for its costs? Databases used include a visitor and enterprise survey, qualitative interviews and secondary sources; analyses involved several interrelated environmental valuation methods. Results suggest that the BFNP is an economically favourable land use option under most scenarios. At national level, half of the scenarios show a benefit–cost ratio (BCR) greater than 1. At regional level the park acts as a tool for economic development, generating net monetary gains for surrounding counties, with BCRs of over 1 throughout. Tourism contributes to over 60% of the benefits and compensates for more than two-thirds of the costs in half of the scenarios discussed. Key policy implications are listed.

Zusammenfassung: Zahlreiche Studien belegen die ökonomische Bedeutung des Tourismus, die mit Hilfe verschiedener theoretischer Konzepte und Methodenansätze analysiert werden kann. Dieser Einführungsbeitrag in das Themenheft gibt einen Überblick über die unterschiedlichen Konzepte zu den wirtschaftlichen Wirkungen des Tourismus und arbeitet deren wichtigste Einflussfaktoren heraus. Häufig werden der räumliche Maßstab sowie die Kostenseite des Tourismus übersehen. Besonderes Augenmerk richtet der vorliegende Beitrag auf einen weiteren, entscheidenden Einflussfaktor ökonomischer Effekte, die Besucherausgaben. Die Rolle des Ausgabeverhaltens der Besucher wird unter Rückgriff auf einen umfassenden Literaturüberblick vorgestellt. Auf diese Weise ist es möglich, auf verallgemeinerbare und systematische Weise die wichtigsten Treiber des Ausgabeverhaltens von Besuchern zu identifizieren.