Unit 2 - Task 3 - the one about the present and future of tourism

The videos in the folder about the Future of Tourism are all very interesting.

In the FT debate on How the tourism industry can recover post pandemic it is interesting how the three CEOs 'expect' governments to support their important industry in times of hardship and in combating climate change.

In the MojoTravels video about What Travel Will Look Like in a Post-Pandemic World, it is quite evident that people in general are itching to start travelling again after the pandemic. The video goes through some foreseen changes in our travel habits, insurance, trip duration, destinations ... some minor inconveniences ahead!

The TEDx Talk on How to save tourism from itself by Doug Lansky is perhaps the more interesting of the bunch. He warns of the dangers of over-tourism and irresponsible tourism. He goes through some common sense proposals to make tourism more 'enjoyable' and sustainable for visitors and locals alike. At some point he discusses flying and its climate sustainability ... he calls it a catch-22 situation.

The last of the videos by the ever so lovely Currently Hannah about Over-Tourism - Is sustainable tourism possible? goes through some examples of over-tourism in Japan, where the tourism industry has grown rather quickly over the past few years, and it has had quite an impact on certain destinations. She goes through some suggestions on how 'we', as tourists and influencers, can help address the problem. 

The pdf file titled "No tourist Mecca" from The Economist goes through the difficulties a country like Saudi Arabia is and will encounter in phasing their economy from oil to a new economy, where Tourism is planned to be a key element. It is not looking good.

My own personal and quite unorganised thoughts follow now.

Let's start by clearly stating: I am a hypocrite.

I have travelled fairly extensively in the past. I don't hold any kind of world record, but I have been lucky with my travels. From The Maldives to Jamaica, from Iceland to Zanzibar ... been to Venice not once, but twice! Paris, New York, Marrakesh, Rome ... I definitely benefited and took full advantage of the 'democratisation' of air travel from the late 90s and early 2000s.

But now, in an exercise of immense dishonesty, insincerity and hypocrisy, I must write about how unsustainable tourism and cheap air travel are.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and in great part it is due to the 'newly found' affordability of air travel.

According to Sustainable Travel International, in 2018, tourism was responsible for about 8% of the world's carbon emissions, and pretty much half of that was due to the travelling part of tourism, mostly, but not only, air travel. Our World in Data puts a figure of 2.5% of total CO2 emissions down to global aviation in 2018.

The fact is that many countries (including our own) have a vested interest in the continuous growth of the tourism industry. So it is hard to see how it will suddenly stop growing. Unless ... pandemic! But that, hurtful as it is to the industry, will only be a blip in the charts. The industry will push for growth faster and faster as more people move into the industry's target audience.

In 2021 the Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 29th. Every single day past that date, we have been effectively borrowing from our future selves and our unborn future generations. And we have been doing just that for decades now. If the average human lived just like the average Spanish human, we would be needing approximately 2.5 earths … of course, that figure rises and falls depending on the country. But globally we are all needing 1.7 earths per year to just go on living like we do today.

Something has to give. The bill is due.

Among many other things, and all very important, we might have to rethink where our current model for tourism should fall in our list of priorities.

As for me, I think I will stop travelling. At least long-haul travel.