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A Summary of the Reading on Sustainable Tourism and the Big Challenge of Climate
Change

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A Summary of the Reading on Sustainable Tourism and the Big Challenge of Climate

Change

Global warming presents a great challenge for society worldwide, one that is significantly

affecting the tourism industry investments, operations, demand, and planning. It is estimated that

the great challenge of global warming will change tourism worldwide over the next thirty years

and beyond. The present state of the decarbonization process and ambitions in the tourism sector

are not in harmony with the changes needed by empirical-based targets (Scott, 2021). The work

will provide a summary of the main problems global warming presents to sustainable tourism,

and the existing gaps.

The first global warming challenge experienced in the tourism sector is decarbonization.

Such a move will require a huge process of transitioning to a minimum carbon economy for the

tourism industry to achieve the industry’s emissions reduction ambitions. Tourism can only be

regarded as a sustainable activity when it has been decarbonized to a degree that is in harmony

with the empirical-based policy goals of the Paris Climate Agreement (Scott, 2021). The most

impactful idea conveyed is that the tourism industry has acknowledged that it needs to transition

into a zero-emission economy. In their efforts to transition to zero-emission, the organizations

affiliated with the tourism industry have announced their initial decarbonization ambition for the

sector at -50% by 2035 (Scott, 2021). What I found challenging is that there is a large gap

between the industry’s emission projections and the recorded emission reduction ambitions.

Another climate challenge encountered by the tourism sector is getting used to the

multifaceted and complex socio-economic and environmental effects of a more climate-disturbed

planet. According to Scott (2021), evidence suggests that climate change effects on tourism

assets are contributing to the “last chance” tourism markets. These are scenarios whereby tourists
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visit destinations before the forces of nature permanently destroy them. Meanwhile, researchers

have realized that for tourism to decarbonize and remain sustainable, countries worldwide will

have to reduce global economic growth. For example, a reduction of the annual global GDP by

1.4% could result in a significant reduction of tourism arrivals by -22% in 2030 (Scott, 2021). A

key gap concerning the impact of global warming in the tourism sector is that global tourism

leaders have not internalized the degree of carbon risks to the industry. In addition, the current

tourism policies are insufficient for the scale of the global warming challenge, both in reduction

and adaptation. The reason is that most nations where tourism is among the main components of

the economy and where tourism is at extreme risk of global warming do not recognize the

tourism industry as a priority within their nationally determined contributions (Scott, 2021).

Thus, it seems these gaps indicate that global warming has yet to become a priority for tourism

plan development and policy.

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References

Scott, D. (2021). Sustainable Tourism and the Grand Challenge of Climate Change.

Sustainability, 13(4), 1966. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041966