ECOTOURISM AND ECO-FRIENDLY ACCOMMODATION AS ADAPTATION PRACTICES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Nowadays, tourism represents a kind of environmental consumption, and tourists account for a significant proportion of consumption. Tourists therefore play an important role in developing or negatively affecting sustainable tourism. Eco-friendly accommodation, designed to reduce the negative environmental impacts of tourism become increasingly popular worldwide. Although the popularity of eco-friendly hotels has increased, the actual stays in such hotels are relatively short. The impacts of the tourism system on nature, tourist facilities, attractions and tourist habits require systematic research, with the main focus on the causes and consequences of and solutions to environmental problems. Ecotourism is also one of the research areas of environmental sociology, and eco-friendly accommodation represents part of ecotourism. Research into the behaviour of tourists towards, for instance, eco-friendly accommodation, can provide policymakers with relevant information to design new adaptation strategies to mitigate the economic impacts of climate change. The present research aims to analyse tourist practices for mitigating climate change impacts through eco-friendly accommodation based on case studies examined in Latvia.