Identifier	Thesis 2184
Author	Szostek, Danuta I., 1974-
Title	Ski resorts in New England and their adaptation measures to changing climate patterns
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2011; *
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	Temperature increase is affecting tourism industry around the world. It has an effect on winter tourism especially on ski and snowboard resorts in New England region of the United States. As winters become milder and less snowy, resorts have to employ more adaptive measures to stay in business. Some of these adaptive measures such as snow making are utilized by all of the resorts as there is not enough natural snow falling on their slopes to provide for the growing interest in skiing and snowboarding. The goal of this research was to examine the effects temperature increase has on the operations of 11 ski resorts in New England (i.e. Ski Sundown and Mount Southington in Connecticut, Yawgoo Valley in Rhode Island, Nashoba Valley and Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts, Middlebury College Snow Bowl and Killington in Vermont, Pat’s Peak and Attitash in New Hampshire, and Sunday River and Mount Abram in Maine) and their customers. Adaptation measures that these resorts utilize to counteract the negative effects of changing climatic patterns were examined. Resort managers and customers (i.e. skiers and snowboarders) participated in this study. Eleven managers of eleven ski resorts in New England completed a survey regarding their perceptions about changing climatic patterns and measures they adapted to deal with the effects warmer temperatures have on their resorts. Two managers from each New England state completed the survey, except for Rhode Island, where only one ski resort exist, so only one manager in that state was interviewed. The perceptions and adaptation measures of 155 skiers and snowboarders were also assessed. The results from both surveys and supporting literature revealed that both ski resorts managers and customers have altered their actions, at least to some degree, to deal with the impacts of changing climate patterns on ski resorts in New England. The adaptation methods utilized by resort managers consisted of technological practices (i.e. snowmaking, slope development, operational practices, and cloud seeding) and business practices (i.e. creating ski conglomerates, revenue diversification, and marketing). Customers were adapting by planning their ski and snowboards trips based on weather forecasts, choosing resorts with better snow conditions, and by choosing to do different activities than they usually do at ski resorts.
Subject	Skis and skiing -- Climatic factors -- New England Climatic changes -- Economic aspects -- New England
Department	Department of Geography
Advisor	Pope, Cynthia
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	804653137
Rating

Ski resorts in New England and their adaptation measures to changing climate patterns

Description

Tags

Comments