Climate change has become a public concern only recently. Numerous studies have already been published on the mechanisms of the phenomenon and several climate models have already been established. Yet less scientific literature deals with the social aspects of this issue. This thesis analyses the ways the scientific knowledge regarding climate change is interpreted by the tourism actors of a specific territory and of a specific tourism activity field subject to climate hazards, the winter tourism. By using survey and analysis methods from social psychology and sociology we have identified social representations of climate change of skiers and tourist operators from the Eastern Pyrenees ski resorts. We have also identified the behavior and the management strategies resulting from these social representations.
