Major events have increasingly become the subject of tourism destination promotion and have grown in importance in driving
tourism demand in recent years. However, the staging of major tourist events has not only led to increased CO2
emissions in Austria, the events themselves have also been affected by climate change. The paper at hand is based on a data
collection and review process which covered the relevant peer reviewed and grey literature. This comprehensive process was
based on, and was open to, contributions by the full scientific community of relevant Austrian researchers and experts. The
compilation process of the report followed quality standards such as the involvement of international partners as review editors
within the review process. In addition, the literature was surveyed to integrate the international state of the art. The paper
discusses the relationship between events and climate change by looking at mitigation measures on the one hand as well as
adaptive strategies taken by event organizers on the other. However, a significant lack of objective information and data
as well as appropriate scientific studies also became obvious in this process. Against this background main tasks and challenges
for further research are identified and discussed. The paper closes with managerial implications for the organization of major
events.
