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Climate change & Tourism

For tourism, climate change is not a remote event, but a phenomenon that already affects the sector and certain destinations in particular, mountain regions and coastal destinations, among others. At the same time, the tourism sector contributes to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), by the transport of tourists.

The impacts of climate change

The climate is an essential resource for tourism and especially for the segments of tourism sport winter, the nature and the beach. Changes in climate and weather models to tourist generating countries and tourist destinations can significantly affect the comfort of tourists and their travel decisions. Application deployment patterns and tourist flows will have impacts on tourism enterprises and host communities, but also fall effects on related sectors, such as agriculture, craft or construction.

Climate change and the global warming became a key area of general concern, solid scientific reports, economic studies and increasingly numerous reports in the media. For tourism, the climate change is not a phenomenon that will occur in the distant future ; It already has an influence on the sector in different settings and destinations, polar regions to tropical islands through the mountains, the sides, arid zones, Heritage sites, etc. It must be acknowledged that between tourism and climate change, There are interactions. Tourism contributes, also, the causes of climate change, mainly with tourist transport and energy emissions used in facilities in the sector.
Since the first international conference that the WTO had convened on this topic in Tunisia in 2003, He does not cease to grow a body of knowledge on the relationship between tourism and climate change ; awareness of the professionals of the sector is considerable and tourism is dealt with in the context of international mechanisms and neighbouring sectoral policies. Are now more widely recognized the urgent need for the tourism sector to adapt to changing climatic conditions and preventive measures of the upcoming effects, and to mitigate the impact of tourism on the environment, contributing to climate change.

Climate for tourism-related risks : the need for adaptation
Besides it is a factor of impact and risk, the climate is, for tourism, an essential resource, in general for all outdoor and activities especially for tourism Beach and winter sports. Directly, climate variability and changing weather conditions can influence the establishment of tourist programs and daily activities. The change of the times in tourist destinations and issuing countries of tourism can have large effects on the comfort of tourists, on their travel decisions and finally on tourist flows. The modification of the characteristics of the application and tourist flows will have repercussions on tourism businesses and host this activity-dependent communities, as well as chain reactions on the sectors related to tourism such as agriculture or building. And especially, any significant decrease in tourist arrivals in small island developing States or in developing countries where tourism is a major economic activity will have serious consequences for employment and create more poverty. As for the indirect impact, It is linked to the use of environmental resources and hardware effects on destinations and tourism infrastructure, especially in the case of extreme climate events. These risk factors must be integrated in professional practice and in the process of planning for tourism, for adaptation to climate change.

Second International Conference on climate change and tourism

The contribution of tourism to the causes of climate change : the need for mitigation
If the polluting effects of tourism concerns relate to all aspects of this activity, the main problem concerning the factors of climate change is the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) due to the transport services that use travellers (including road and air transport) and consumption of energy in tourist establishments (for example, for air conditioning, the heating and lighting of hotels). In the broader field of the sustainability of tourism, It should be the high consumption of water by tourist, the problems of energy efficiency and waste management and the effects of tourism on the fauna and flora. It is the responsibility of the tourism sector to minimize harmful emissions by encouraging transport without net emission of carbon solutions, to improve the effectiveness of the exploitation of natural resources (water, energy) and to contribute to the protection of natural areas.

The second International Conference on climate change and tourism will bring together international organizations, stakeholders in the public and private tourism sectors and the academic community to study the international mechanisms and discuss the needs of adaptation and mitigation and policy options. Considering the complexity of the relationship between climatic factors and tourist activities, draw conclusions and make recommendations for all stakeholders.