Why Every Tourism Business and Destination Needs a Climate Action Plan

Photo: Mika Baumeister via Unsplash

2022 has given us a sneak peek of how tourism will change, evolve, and get battered (if we don’t act urgently), in a climate ravaged world.

Even as the industry began recovering from two of its worst years during the Covid-19 pandemic, it faced a plethora of extreme weather events that disrupted tourism from Asia to Europe and beyond.

The impact of climate change on tourism in 2022 (so far)

In its peak summer travel season from July to August, Europe experienced unprecedented heatwaves, and recorded some of its highest temperatures ever. Wildfires raged through tourism destinations in Spain, Greece and Portugal. Train travel across the UK faced disruptions due to overheated tracks. And tourism businesses were bombarded with itinerary change requests to skip the hot spots (literally), and seek cooler shores further north.

In the monsoon months from June to August, Pakistan experienced some of its worst floods in history – with 10 times higher than usual rainfall and increased glacial meltwater due to warmer temperatures, compounded by an unplanned built environment. The tragic loss of lives was followed by a sustained loss of livelihoods, as the tourism industry found itself in shambles in the wake of the floods. The floods also cause widespread damage at Mohenjo Daro, a 5,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization!

Though out of the spotlight, tourism destinations in Southeast Asia too experienced some of their worst flooding in years, in the months of September and October. Rivers became swollen due to heavy rainfall, and seasonal storms increased in frequency. Streets in Thailand’s Bangkok and Chiang Mai got submerged. Tourists had to be evacuated in boats from Vietnam’s Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage town. And many visitors abandoned Siem Reap due to the fear of flash floods.

According to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, climate change is already impacting all inhabited regions on earth – with “virtual certainty” (99-100% probability) that as global warming continues, the frequency of hot weather extremes will increase, and heavy precipitation events will become more common and intense.

Why tourism businesses and destinations need a climate action plan

The scientific and anecdotal evidence underlines the fact that tourism businesses and destinations are highly vulnerable to climate change. That means their visitor arrivals, revenue drivers, and the livelihoods they create, are all under threat. Simultaneously, tourism itself contributes to atleast 8% of global GHG emissions – and by not taking action to reduce those emissions, the tourism industry is making itself further vulnerable to global warming.

According to a baseline report on Climate Action in Tourism by the UNWTO, Adventure Travel Trade Association and the Glasglow Declaration, 25% of tourism businesses have no plan or strategy to address climate change, while 47% are taking some action but have no formalized plan or strategy.

Findings from a survey of 1139 tourism businesses, destinations and supporting organizations.

This is a problem, because it means that 72% of tourism businesses are shooting in the dark (or not shooting at all). They could be spending time, money and other resources on actions that make only a marginal difference in climate change mitigation or adaptation. They could have no idea of their environmental footprint, and no means to track whether it is being reduced. After all, it’s hard to manage what we don’t measure.

A climate action plan is a way for tourism businesses and destinations to think through a pathway to understand, measure, reduce, and manage their environmental footprint - while also taking a broader perspective of how local communities in regions they operate in, can benefit from climate action.

In the face of a climate emergency, a climate action plan ought to have the same significance as a business plan. Both are equally essential to ensure the short and long term survival of a tourism entity.

What a climate action plan for tourism can look like

For tourism businesses and destinations thinking of a climate action strategy, the first step would be to officially declare a climate emergency, and sign the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. This syncs commitments with the global goal to half emissions by 2030, and reach net zero at the earliest before 2050. Signatories receive access to webinars, tools and resources to support their climate action journey.

A comprehensive climate action plan can include the following commitments with timelines:

Measure direct and indirect emissions in the tourism supply chain

This includes a realistic timeline to measure Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. Of these, Scope 3 aka supply chain emissions account for the bulk of the emissions in tourism (often upto 80%), while Scope 1 and Scope 2 (offices, employee travel etc) emissions are more within a tourism entity’s control.

Reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and assess ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions

The main focus of the climate action plan must be a timeline to reduce the measured emissions - specifying how much and by when. Once the highest emitting areas are identified, the plan must assess Scope 3 emissions to find lower footprint alternatives. For a tour operator, this could mean evaluating options for train travel to replace short distance flights; boutique, eco-friendly guesthouses to replace big hotels; and more seasonal, plant-based meals to replace meat-heavy buffets. Simultaneously, Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions can be lowered by powering offices with renewable energies, and replacing a percentage of employee flights with land-based travel or digital meetings.

Remove emissions through meaningful offsets

The next goal of the climate action plan is to create an achievable timeline to drawdown emissions that are hard to reduce. These could take the form of gold standard offsets, or better still, community based travel offsets and rewilding projects, that directly support local communities and ecosystems in the destination or region where a tourism business operates. Ideally, a climate action plan should aim to offset 2x the carbon generated, to account for proxies in the measurement methodologies, as well as the time lag in carbon drawdown through offsets.

Transparent public disclose of the entire process - from measurement to reduction and offsets - is essential to hold the industry accountable, and equip travellers with the information to make better travel choices.

Support the supply chain, and broader industry, with measurement and reductions

Since the bulk of tourism emissions are Scope 3 in nature – aka they come from the supply chain – the support extended to the supply chain is an essential component of a climate action plan. For a tour operator, this could mean collaborating with hotel partners to offer support in measuring their emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and finding other cost-effective ways to reduce their emissions.

Assess vulnerability to climate change and have an adaptation pathway

A climate action plan can (and must) include a commitment to develop climate adaptation solutions for the tourism business or destination. This can start with a broader evaluation of the vulnerabilities of a destination to global temperature rise, and the impact anticipated on the destination, business, local community, and direct and indirect tourism-driven livelihoods.

Invest in low carbon pathways for the tourism industry

Depending on the size of a tourism business or the tourism economy of a destination, their climate action plan could include timeline to invest in tools, methodologies and research to help the tourism industry achieve a low carbon pathway. This could take the form of a coastal destination or resort financing blue carbon credits research, or a tour operator funding a travel-oriented climate awareness project.  

Other climate change awareness and community empowerment commitments

It is ideal that other commitments by tourism entities, that relate to climate action, feature in a climate action plan too. These could include building climate awareness in trips and stays offered by a tourism business, or through marketing touchpoints offered by a destination. It could feature climate education projects in local schools, empowering women in local communities to be at the forefront of climate action, and so much more. 

As an industry, tourism relies heavily on and benefits greatly from natural ecosystems and local communities. It is high time destinations and businesses do more to protect both – and ensure their own survival in the process. A climate action plan is a great starting point.