ITB: Copernicus announces new climate information service tailored to the European tourism industry

Demonstrating the Future – The New Copernicus Climate Change Information System For European Tourism 8th March 2019, 16:00 – 16:45  - ITB Berlin 2019 Messe Berlin, Messedamm 22, 14055 Berlin City Cube Club

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) adds to its Sectoral Information Systems (SIS) with a new offering to provide invaluable data to organisations specialising in winter and summer tourism in Europe

Implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the C3S’s Sectoral Information Systems (SIS) will offer bespoke climate information for users within the tourism sector. Other C3S SIS services currently provide climate information for multiple sectors including water management, agriculture and forestry, health, energy, fisheries and coastal areas. This information is derived from climate data within the Climate Data Store (CDS); namely global and regional climate projections, reanalysis, seasonal forecasts and observations.  

The new European Tourism SIS will deliver a wide range of climate data and topics of interest to tourism organisations and businesses, such as snow conditions, holiday climate index, lake temperature, forest fire weather index and more. Up until now, reliable climate data of this kind has not been available to the tourism industry, in terms of both quality and quantity. For this reason, the Tourism SIS will prove invaluable information to tour operators and investors in tourism services and infrastructure, as well as policymakers, destination management companies and local environmental agencies and associations.

C3S and its partner, Tourisme Transport Territoires Environnement Conseil, TEC will be demonstrating the new European Tourism SIS at the upcoming ITB Berlin tourism trade show. The presentation takes place on 8 March from 16:00 to 16:45 in the City Cube Club at the Berlin Exhibition Centre.

How the new SIS helps ski holiday operators

The winter sports segment provides a practical example of how the European Tourism SIS can help the industry. The mountain component of the new SIS provides resort operators with Mountain Tourism Meteorology Snow Indicators (MTMSIs), helping them plan their snow-making and snow management activities.

Climate change is affecting the number of viable ski slopes as well as the days in a season when temperatures are suitable for making artificial snow. Resort operators can respond to this challenge by using the SIS data and MTMSIs for their area. For each location and at different mountain altitudes, they will now be able to view future snow conditions.

Presentation at ITB Berlin

At the ITB Berlin tourism trade show, C3S and its partner TEC will be presenting the new European Tourism SIS and demonstrating how it can support those in the tourism industry. A panel discussion featuring tourism industry experts will follow a short presentation of the new SIS:

• Introduction to the Copernicus Climate Change Service and to the Sectoral Information System – Samuel Almond (Sectoral Information System Officer, Copernicus Climate Change Service, ECMWF)
  
• Presentation of the Sectoral Information System “European Tourism” introducing the demonstrator and case studies –
  Adeline Cauchy (TEC, C3S European Tourism Contract Manager)
  
  
• Panel discussion on the benefits of C3S European Tourism to users and open audience questions

On the panel are: Ghislain Dubois (TEC, C3S European Tourism Lead), Samuel Almond (ECMWF), Victoria Barlow (Thomas Cook Group, Group Environmental Manager), Nezih Isci (ATC Mountain Tourism Consultants GmbH), Geoffrey Lipman (SUNx), Herbert Hamele (ECOTRANS, User Engagement Lead; moderator) 

Interview opportunities for media representatives

Copernicus C3S experts are available at ITB Berlin for media interviews. Media representatives wishing to take advantage of this opportunity to find out more about the new European Tourism SIS are welcome to contact copernicus-press@ecmwf.int.

Expo stand

Visit the Copernicus stand to meet C3S and TEC experts at the ITB in Hall 4.1 b in the Responsible Tourism and Adventure Travel segment at expo stand 200a.

Notes to editors:

About ECMWF and Copernicus

Copernicus is the European Union’s flagship Earth observation programme. It delivers freely accessible operational data and information services which provide users with reliable and up-to-date information related to environmental issues.

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Union. ECMWF also implements the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). ECMWF is an independent intergovernmental organisation, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its 34 Member and Co-operating States.

More information on Copernicus: www.copernicus.eu
The Copernicus Climate Change Service website can be found at https://climate.copernicus.eu/
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service website can be found at http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/
The ECMWF website can be found at https://www.ecmwf.int/

Copernicus ECMWF contact

Gorana Jerkovic
Copernicus Communications Lead
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX, UK
Email: gorana.jerkovic@ecmwf.int
Phone: +44 (0)118 949 9769
Mobile: +44 (0)7917 588 418
Web: ecmwf.int | atmosphere.copernicus.eu | climate.copernicus.eu