How Climate Change affects Tourism – How Tourism affects Climate Change Erasmus Project

Project Title

How Climate Change affects Tourism – How Tourism affects Climate Change

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Energy and resources; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

Climate change is currently the greatest challenge facing humanity. Tourism is a very important economic sector in all participating partner countries. Tourism secures jobs. In times of climate change, sustainable tourism is essential for survival. Mass tourism threatens the environment but also social cohesion in society. Salzburg is an excellent example of the problems between residents and tourists. Overtourism burdens many cities and reduces the quality of life of the inhabitants.
Raising awareness of the problem of economy versus environment is an important educational goal and teaching objective of schools. The friday for future movement has created an awareness among young people. This movement also shows that the economy and the environment must cooperate for the benefit of our planet.
This project aims to develop transnational proposals on how climate change and tourism can be compatible.

The country-specific problems between climate change and tourism will be worked out and discussed at project meetings in the different countries. Winter tourism plays a major role in Austria. Due to global warming and the melting of the glaciers, this economic sector is acutely threatened. Rethinking is called for. Spain suffers from heat waves and water shortage, as well as environmental pollution. In Iceland, mass tourism is affecting the sensitive natural environment, which regenerates only very slowly in this climate zone. In Finland Climate change and the resulting reduction of the snow and ice cover could mean the end for various animal species such as the Saimaa ringed seal. Mass tourism in Poland and especially in Polish cities causes high energy demand which is covered to a large extent by coal. Coal is largely responsible for climate change through CO² emissions.
Within the scope of the project, Austrian, Islandic, Polish, Finnish and Spanish students of secondary schools work closely together to get an idea of what climate change actually entails for their respective countries and the significance tourism.
The students will go on trips to Iceland, Austria, Spain, Poland and Finland to compare the importance of tourism for the economy, employment on one hand and water management, Living situation, waste management, and influence of tourism on natural ressources on the other hand . With this information they will do assignments and make a portfolio, resulting into a common end product: presentations and recommendations for tourism managers in the respective countries . This end product will be shared within the school (curriculum of other forms, profile papers) and outside the school (website, Facebook page school, vlog, school partnership). The information gathered within this project allows these students to have a better understanding of the problems concerning climate change, an inevitable issue for our teenagers’ future.
Objectives: 1. to make students aware of the problem of climate change and in particular its effects in the individual partner countries.
2. to raise awareness of the importance of tourism for the economy (national income, jobs, etc.) but also for the interaction between tourism and climate change
3. to work out the special situations and circumstances between tourism and climate change in the individual countries.
4. producing a brochure with proposals and approaches for sustainable and environmentally sound tourism.
5. presentation of these results to tourism managers of the individual regions.
6. raising the awareness of the population for this topic. Use of media

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 80750 Eur

Project Coordinator

Europagymnasium Salzburg- Nonntal & Country: AT

Project Partners

• XVIII Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Jana Zamoyskiego
• IES Enrique Nieto