EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A new report from Purdue University says Indiana’s recreation and tourism industry will need to adapt as the state’s climate continues to warm.
The report is the latest Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment from the Purdue Climate Change Research Center.
The series of reports explores climate change’s likely impacts on various topics affecting Indiana’s quality of life and the environment. So far, the detailed assessments have looked at changes to climate, health, urban green space, ecosystems and agriculture, with more such reports to come. Ten different climate models were used to look at Indiana’s future climate.
Tourism contributed more than $12 billion to the state’s economy in 2016, according to the Indiana Office of Tourism Development.
The new report notes that Indiana’s climate and geography make it an attractive place for outdoor tourism and recreation. This, in turn, could affect the businesses dependent on tourism and recreation, especially small businesses that have less flexibility to adapt, said the report’s author, Jonathan Day, graduate program director at Purdue’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
“I think this is a new conversation for the (tourism) industry here in Indiana, and actually lots of parts of the Midwest,” Day said. “It’s a conversation that has already been happening in some parts of the world and in states such as Florida where coast lines are disappearing.”
With Indiana’s winter season expected to shorten 20 to 25 days by mid-century, and spring and fall temperatures expected to warm 4-to-6-degrees Fahrenheit, timing of outdoor recreational activities also will shift, according to the latest report.
As Indiana warms and precipitation patterns change, however, there will be a variety of impacts on both the natural and human systems the tourism sector relies on, the report says. Temperature change could either decrease or increase tourism.
