Last chance to see the ice: visitor motivation at Montenvers-Mer-de-Glace, French Alps

Anthropogenic climate change is causing significant changes to the cryosphere. Glaciers and glacier tourism are directly impacted, and glacier tourism operators must adapt to the disappearance of their main resource. Recent studies carried out in this context have demonstrated that Last Chance Tourism (LCT) has emerged as the motivation behind viewing or visiting a natural resource before it disappears. The most frequently visited French glacier is Montenvers-Mer-de-Glace (1920 m a.s.l.), which is becoming a LCT destination. Results from both qualitative and quantitative methods demonstrate that visitors come to Montenvers mainly for its environmental features and for LCT purposes. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) shows that motivations can be classified into LCT and five other factors. Qualitative data identify ‘Fame’ as an unexpected motivational category, and different motivational dimensions of each category are explored. Concerning LCT motivation, four dimensions are revealed: observing, understanding, a sense of urgency, and witnessing environmental changes. Moreover, the more respondents are aware of climate change, the more they consider LCT motivations important. These results lead us to link LCT to cognitive dissonance. Finally, we propose that future research should explore LCT and its relationship with media coverage and pro-environmental behaviour.