Climate-Resilient Tourism Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies for Sustainable Destinations

Abstract

Climate change has become one of the most daunting issues that the global tourism industry has to deal with and its effects have far reached consequences on destination sustainability, continuity of operation and economy. As much as the current body of tourism literature has researched on destination vulnerability and climate adaptation processes, comparatively little has been done on the logistics and supply chain systems which support tourism operations. The logistics associated with tourism, such as transportation systems, provisioning of accommodation, supply of food and beverages, delivery of energy, and waste management have become increasingly vulnerable to the climate induced disturbances comprising extreme weather conditions, damages to infrastructure and shortages of resources. The paper is a critical analysis of climate-resilient tourism logistics and supply chain plans as a mechanism of realization of sustainable destinations. Using the systematic literature review approach, the paper gathers international scholarly and policy-driven studies in order to find resilience-based logistics practices, governance strategies, and technological interventions that could be used in tourism supply chains. The results indicate that climate-resilient supply chains lead to more destination adaptability, lower environmental-footprint, stable livelihoods of tourism-dependent ones, and better competitiveness in the long term. The paper ends by advising the policy makers, destination managers as well as the tourism stakeholders on strategic recommendations which insists on the need to incorporate resilience thinking in tourism logistics planning and sustainable destination
governance.