Winter tourism is based on snow. This "white gold" is very sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation. That's why any climatic change would impact the snow conditions in Europe's skiing areas.

• Snow is very sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation. Sometimes all that needs to happen is a slight rise in temperature and there is rain instead of snow. Consequently, the naturally occurring variability of snow is extremely large. Periods with little snowfall alternate with "snowy" winters.
• Winter tourism is heavily dependent on snow, consequently periods with little snowfall have a considerable negative impact, such as happened at the end of the 1980s, for example. Global warming would increase the frequency of periods of minimal-snowfall winters.
• Global warming of 1°C would cause a shift in the snow-line and thus the altitude for guaranteed snow to be shifted upwards by ca. 150m. A warming of 2°C would cause today's guaranteed snow altitude of 1200m to be shifted to 1500m.

Further information:

• About climate impacts on tourism