Section 2 Articles and Narratives

Write an article giving both sides of the proposition before coming to a conclusion.

Travelling the world. Is it worth the money and environmental damage involved?

One thing many people miss in today’s climate due to the current global pandemic is
Travelling! There are many people stuck at home for the past few months because of the
lockdown who would love to escape their everyday life with a vacation but unfortunately are
not able to. Because of that fact, the tourism industry has been hit hard by Covid-19. Over
the past decades said industry has been one of the fastest-growing ones worldwide. But is it
worth the money and environmental damage involved?

As already said, over the past few decades the tourism industry has been one of the fastest-
growing industries worldwide. For instance, in 1950, there were, according to the United
Nations World Tourism Organization – Barometer (2019), a total of 25.2 million tourist
arrivals worldwide in 2018 there were 1.4 billion arrivals. To give an even better example the
tourist arrivals in Asia and the pacific in the same time frame increased by 171.400%. Those
numbers obviously indicated huge economic growth. The global revenue in the tourism
sector is estimated to be around 1.48 trillion U.S dollars in 2019. Besides this it is also a top
creator of employment as 1 in 10 jobs are in that sector a total of around 313 million jobs.
Furthermore, it is expected to produce around 75 million new jobs in Africa and Asia in the
next decade trying to lead positive change in those parts in the world. Tourism gets more
and more diverse in the past decades for example 98% of all tourists in 1959 went all to the
top 15 destinations in 2007 those destinations only attracted 57%. Creating new jobs and
opportunities in those parts means economic growth which can lead to reducing poverty,
increase of tolerance and peace.

The huge popularity growth of travelling obviously has its faults, as most things in life. For
travelling it is the carbon footprint. Namely the most popular means of transportation: air
travel. 57% of tourists arrive by air travel which accounts for 75% of tourism’s greenhouse
gas emissions. Unfortunately, planes are the fastest-growing cause of greenhouse gas
emissions and it has increased by 32% since 2013. If that growth rate continues planes are
going to be responsible for one-quarter of the 1,5° carbon budget. Moreover, the way that
emissions are released straight into the upper atmosphere cause more rapid damage. A big
problem is the lack of alternatives, as tourists already take more long-range flights than
business travellers and coach and railway are not fitting alternatives for long-range travel.
Coach and railway travel combined only account for 13% of global travel. Even worse than
air travel are cruises. Cruises are one of the most profitable tourism sectors and were worth
around $117 billion in 2017 and all indicators show that this sector is going to continue to
grow. Although cruises are not very comparable to planes, because planes usually only bring
people from one spot to another spot cruises are an all-round entertainment ship from
restaurants to swimming pools, they have a much worse carbon footprint. Scientists
estimate that even the most efficient cruise at the moment emits up to four times as much
carbon dioxide per passenger-mile as a plane.
Travelling has become one of the most popular hobbies in our time. Our current situation
shows how fragile the industry is and its environmental flaws are more visible than ever.
Maybe it is time to overthink how all of us travel to our next vacation!

Joel S. Caetano

Sources:
https://www.unwto.org/international-tourism-growth-continues-to-outpace-the-economy
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/international-tourist-arrivals-by-world-region
https://www.icao.int/Meetings/iwaf2018/Documents/Travel%20and%20Tourism.pdf
https://www.greenchoices.org/eco-holidays/environmental-impacts#
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/travel/traveling-climate-change.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/travel/traveling-climate-change.html