“A Change of Latitude Would Help My Attitude”

The period between the end of February and the beginning of March this year was difficult for Himachal Pradesh, a state in the northern part of India located in the Western Himalaya. “Incessant bouts of heavy rainfall” triggered flash floods and landslides, local media reported. Vehicles were swept away and almost 600 roads had to be closed within hours. Yet, in less than a week Himachal Pradesh was back to normal – and tourists returned in large numbers, seeking the cooler climate of the mountains. 

This pattern can be found all over the world. Global tourism is back to pre-pandemic levels with 1.4 billion international travelers, according to the UN World Tourism Barometer. Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, the UN Tourism organization says, while recalling “our immense responsibility as a sector to accelerate transformation, placing people and planet at the center of the development of tourism.” 

Although tourism has bounced back across the board, increases have been particularly strong in the Global South: Africa welcomed 7 percent more arrivals in 2024 than in 2019, the Middle East recorded an increase of 32 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels and Asia and the Pacific also continued a rapid recovery with 316 million international visitors last year alone. The sector is critically important for economic growth, with tourism generating up to 10, 12 and 15 percent respectively in African, Asian and Caribbean countries, according to UN estimates. 

Yet tourism does not only create wealth. The industry is “both a cause and a victim of climate change,” as Tourism Watch, a non-governmental monitor, says. The numbers are well documented and generally undisputed: According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), an industry forum, in 2023 travel and tourism accounted for 6.5 percent (3.41 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent) of all global emissions. From 2009 to 2013 alone, emissions increased four times more than previously estimated. It was the COVID-19 pandemic which eventually halted the unstoppable rise, yet only temporarily. 

Equally well documented and – more or less – undisputed are the impacts of climate change on fragile ecosystems in the Global South. The loss of arable land, coral reefs, deforestation, water supplies and biodiversity trigger many further consequences, leading to losses of livelihoods and lives, threatening entire nations. 

The damage to the environment also undermines the very foundation of tourism: “Largely, the pattern of tourism in the Global South is related to ecology,” said Abinash Mohanty, Head of Climate Change and Sustainability at IPE Global, a business advisory, and expert reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Since tourism generates a lot of economic advantages and opportunities, we have tried to overexploit these ecologically sensitive areas. Of late, changing weather patterns and climate-linked disasters have been triggered in these places.” 

The Himalayan episode of Himachal Pradesh is but one example. Over the years, tourist destinations have been losing the very essence of what draws people to these places in the first place – the forest cover, the clean sea, the pristine lake, the ecology and nature. “What we’re witnessing is a system straining at its seams, where climate-triggered events are exposing poor planning and outdated infrastructure,” says Uttam Banerjee, co-founder and CEO of Ekam Eco, a sustainable living start-up. 

The losses are enormous. In the Maldives, rising sea levels threaten 80 percent of the land area, impacting beach resorts and resulting in potential losses of up to 38 percent of GDP. In Kenya, droughts reduce wildlife populations in national parks, slashing tourist arrivals by 30 percent during extreme dry seasons. In Nepal, melting glaciers affect trekking and mountaineering tourism, with estimates suggesting US$50 million annual losses in this segment of tourism alone. 

Faced with these challenges, patterns and approaches are changing. Governments have realized that action is not only necessary, but urgently overdue. In 2024, Indonesia announced plans to move its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, because the former is sinking at an alarming rate. This is a fate the metropolis shares with other massive conurbations like Bangkok, Lagos, Mumbai and the capitals of several Small Island Developing States. 

The tourism industry has also woken up. The WTTC published a report last year entitled A Net Zero Roadmap for Travel & Tourism which states: “The urgency of climate change is clearer than ever. Travel & Tourism is both heavily affected by its effects and a significant emitter of greenhouse gases.” The roadmap aims for tourism to achieve carbon neutrality through a combination of emissions reduction and removal in the period 2020-2030 and gradually achieving complete net zero across the entire tourism value chain. 

However, critics argue that such solemn words are often not followed up by concrete action. Recognizing the important role tourism plays in climate change, the travel industry was invited to the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku last November for the first time following the signing of the “Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism” in 2021. The declaration promises “strong action and commitment to accelerate climate action.” Yet, while the number of signatories has risen to 900 to date, most have still not published their action plans. Furthermore, the largest contributor to climate change in the sector, the aviation industry, has not signed up to the convention. Nor have most cruise lines. 

So it is hardly surprising that a December 2023 Global Stocktake on Tourism and Climate Action by over 60 experts found “insufficient commitment to climate action.” Considering the fact that the “vast majority” of tourism’s global footprint is produced by wealthy nations, “global mitigation policies for tourism need to address questions of climate justice,” the report said. 

The stocktake also found that only eight percent of projects funded by development banks, UN agencies, national development corporations and NGOs between 2000 and 2022 were likely to advance climate resilient tourism. Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University, Australia, concludes: “Climate finance must consider climate vulnerabilities of tourism and assess whether tourism will be an appropriate development mechanism in the future.”