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Aesthetic perceptions of the landscape of a shrinking glacier: Evidence from the Mont Blanc massif

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 35; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jort.2021.100411

2213-0799

Emmanuel Salim, Ludovic Ravanel, Christophe Gauchon,

Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management

Glacier landscapes attract millions of tourists every year; however, climate change induces alterations in these popular destinations. Although landscape changes can affect visitor behaviour, very few studies have investigated their impact on tourism. This study investigated how recent changes in the most-visited French glacier, the Mer de Glace (Chamonix, Mont Blanc massif), influenced tourist judgments and dissatisfaction. The methodology comprised a qualitative analysis, which was performed by interviewing tourists, supported by a quantitative survey. Despite the landscape being severely affected by climate change, the results revealed that the visitor's dissatisfaction level remained low. Nonetheless, the glacier is negatively perceived owing to changes in length, colour, and size. In addition, factors such as the glacier tongue covered by debris, lack of snow, dryness, desolation, and 'degraded nature' have adversely impacted the landscape's aesthetics. A linear regression analysis demonstrated that tourists' motivation to visit, estimation of the retreat rate of Mer de Glace, and living in France or abroad significantly predicted landscape dissatisfaction. Moreover, the results revealed that up to 30.2% of the respondents might not visit the site if glacier visibility was hindered, which is the likely situation within the next 30 years. Consequently, solutions that tourism operators can implement include reorganising marketing resources and focusing on the glacier as a resource for climate-change interpretation.