26 Jul Tourism and Climate Change

Last week there were massive wildfires, once-in-a-thousand-year floods, and ongoing droughts. The impacts of climate change are evident across the globe. And in each place, tourism will be affected in some way. It almost seems unnecessary to say climate change will impact the tourism system, and any discussion of sustainable tourism needs to consider the impacts of climate change.

And it doesn’t work to say – “let’s deal with one first, then we can get to the other.”

Climate change and sustainability are inextricably connected. Address climate change, and you are working on sustainability; work on sustainability, and you must address climate change at some point. From a tourism perspective, there is no sustainable tourism unless climate issues are addressed; and climate change is one of the most pressing of the many challenges that we must address for truly sustainable tourism. It is worth highlighting that climate change intersects with sustainable tourism issues such as economic viability of tourism, consumer demand for travel, tourism jobs, biodiversity, energy, water, waste management, resilience, culture and heritage preservation, and social justice issues.

But do the best practices in sustainable tourism recognize the importance of climate change? Absolutely.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC) destination criteria require plans and programs for climate change adaptation and mitigation (Destination Criteria A10: Climate Change Adaption and D10: GHG emissions and Climate change Adaptation). Similarly, GSTC’s hotel criteria require efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (D2.1 Reducing Pollution-Greenhouse gas emissions). Tourism operators and destination leaders must address climate change as part of their sustainable tourism practices.

The time for sustainable development of tourism and climate change action is now. There’s work to be done…