Skift Take
It's hard for resorts and hotels to justify costs related to preparing for climate change in the coming years when they can easily pass along costs to future owners. What Miami and other cities need is a sense of shared responsibility.
Florida tourism and climate experts are speaking today at a U.S. Senate field hearing to discuss the threat of rising sea levels, beach erosion, inland flooding and other climate change impacts to the state's multibillion-dollar tourism sector.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) called the Earth Day meeting in Miami Beach to underscore the need for South Florida to adapt to its changing coastline. The area "is the most threatened by sea level rise in the continental U.S.," he said last month.
The event will also highlight resilience measures that local governments are already taking, including plans in Palm Beach County to concentrate housing and infrastructure on higher ground and an effort in Hallandale Beach to move the city's entire drinking water supply away from the ocean.
"It's going to cost big resources to get cities to be climate resilient, and obviously the tourism industry has a huge stake in making sure that happens so they can continue to flourish," Christina DeConcini, director of government affairs at the World Resources Institute, told Skift.
Florida tourism—the state's biggest economic engine—raked in nearly $72 billion in 2012, and about one-third of that money going to Miami.
The sout
