Tourism and climate change

 

It’s ambitious for a small blog to brave a huge topic like climate change.

But as tonight I was doing some readings, I felt compelled to drop here a couple of lines.

 

Tourism is a special activity. Many industries can be transferred from a place to another. Tourism cannot. Or, I’d better say, tourists can, destinations cannot.

Therefore tourism cannot be exempt from trying to mitigate climate change. The tourism industry is a cause and at the same time the first victim of global warming. The rising sea, desertification, deforestation, the disappearance of glaciers and the shortening of the snow season impoverish tourist destinations, which are totally dependent on the natural attractiveness.

 

Think about the rising seas and the consequent disappearance of entire islands and coastal areas, or about the desertification and the reduction of the availability of drinking water, which -worse than a war- makes entire areas unsuitable for human life, not only for tourists, but also for local communities. Deforestation and the damage caused to biodiversity directly affect the competitiveness of the destinations that are affected. Melting glaciers and reduced snow cover put on the death row the destinations that were meant for their enjoyment.

 

Focusing on global warming, it has been noted that some destinations benefit from rising temperatures: the bathing seasons can lengthen by a few weeks, due to higher water temperatures. Rural tourism in its outdoor activities can count on the reduced rainfall, as well. These benefits, limited and not equally distributed, certainly cannot counterbalance the explosive effect of territorial degradation as well as the disappearance of entire ecosystems elsewhere.

And high temperature is causing everywhere unpredictable extreme weather. Tourism has no worse enemies than the lack of safety and unpredictability.

 

We are all called to do something, to embed this discourse in our tourism-related discussions, even in small blogs.