10 Sep 2023 07:58 – Updated Sep 10 2023 09:01
Where will we go in the next decade? The pandemic became a prism that has given us new perspectives on the essence of tourism. Where should we go? The question presents us with more choices and considerations than ever before.
Although the pandemic made us stay at home, the travel bug never let go of us. I myself took advantage of the “corona break” to write a wish list:
Which destinations was I looking forward to getting on first name terms with? And which ones
Tempted for a return visit?
Not least the latter offered challenges. Because the covid crisis and climate change had wreaked havoc in countless ways, making some less accessible, others less attractive.
While the scale and turbo-pace of global tourism had turned many dream destinations into overcrowded, polluted tourist traps.
Arild Molstad is a photojournalist and one of Norway’s most traveled writers. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, for a number of years has been an adviser to Unesco’s World Heritage Office and associated with the National Geographic Society’s Missions programme. He is a lecturer and engaged as an international consultant in environmental, cultural and aid issues.
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Ferry queues in the Mediterranean have multiplied. In Croatia, the number of holidaymakers grew from 1.5 million in 1995 to 19.7 million in 2019. Read more Close
Overturism
The term “over-tourism” was coined to describe places unable to cope with large crowds, especially day-trippers.
In the spring of 2020 and beyond, the global appetite for travel idled. We became short-traveled globetrotters in our home countries, wearing a mask and a dose of bad conscience. The year before, the number crunchers at the WTO, the World Tourism Organization, had reported that ‘this year 1.5 billion will cross international borders in search of great experiences.’
If domestic travel had been included, the figure would have been 3-4 times higher. But the covid virus and the climate crisis wanted it differently.
At the same time, something else happened: When holiday air traffic almost stopped and the CO2 content in the atmosphere decreased, exhaust clouds, noise levels and littering began to evaporate.
From the center of Santiago it was once again possible to glimpse the peaks of the Andes.
In the suburbs of million cities, deer, foxes and larger wild animals appeared in parks and gardens, while fish and marine animals returned to their home waters.
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From the center of Santiago it was once again possible to glimpse the peaks of the Andes
Outside Nairobi, elephants appeared in the suburbs.
Last chance trips
These days, choosing a holiday trip is a question where many existential considerations force themselves on: Can I get there by train? Should one visit a dictatorship state? Will my visit create further pressure on vulnerable nature? Where can a family’s holiday budget add to the destination a better standard of living or protect the local culture?
As a result of the acceleration of climate change – with the accompanying visible and noticeable loss of natural diversity worldwide – a new travel format has emerged: “Last Chance” trips to places whose attractions are disappearing, such as Mount Kilimanjaro whose snow-covered profile will soon belongs to the past.
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Kilimanjaro’s white “snow cap” is about to melt away Read more Close
Also in the Norwegian mountain home, we now go on photo safaris to “forever-owned-only-the-lost” glaciers that are melting before our eyes.
The same happens in the Alps, where the majority of alpine ski resorts are located around 1,000 meters above sea level
In Cortina d’Ampezzo there is concern about the snow conditions during the Olympics in three years’ time. Read more Close
The catastrophic lack of snow
Cortina has for many years been a major consumer of artificial snow.
That the alpine icon will host the Winter Olympics in 2026 will further focus on the environmental specter that plagues mayors of mountain villages everywhere.
– We have no choice, we have to change our business concept, revealed those I met during a trip in the Dolomites recently.
There, they were well on their way to hiding the wounds of the downhill runs in the summer landscape, while paths for foot and e-bike tourists were being groomed in order to rake in more currency from year-round tourism rather than an increasingly shorter winter season.
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Electric cycling in the Alps has boosted the local economy. Read more Close
Challenges under water
In more tropical areas, the challenges await below the sea level.
UN climate experts fear that the coral reefs are doomed by man-made interventions, in the form of acid rain, pollution and global warming.
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia faces an uncertain future. Read more Close
Unfortunately, we burn large amounts of greenhouse gases to fly to magical but vulnerable coral reefs. The tourism industry at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef reports that visitors are aware that the colorful natural giant faces a bleak future.
Also on the islands, straits and beaches of Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, we have to dive ever deeper to experience the underwater spectacle we previously only needed a normal swimming mask to admire.
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As much as 80 percent of the Maldives’ roughly one thousand islands lie less than one meter above sea level. They are slowly being swallowed by the sea. Read more Close
But all hope is not yet lost.
From marine biologists to financial institutions are looking for effective interventions that can reverse the gloomy forecasts.
On land, aquariums are built, both to preserve endangered fish species, keep tourism and cruise ships away from endangered waters and showcase the wealth of the world’s oceans.
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In 2018, the beautiful Thailand destination Maya Bay was closed to tourists to protect the bay’s vulnerable natural diversity. Read more Close
Tourism taxes impose themselves
Several island nations and countries that, like Ecuador, have entered into agreements on the cancellation of foreign debt in exchange for more effective protection of endangered nature, both above and below the water.
Like in the Galapagos.
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The waiting list for boat trips to the Galapagos’ fabulous island kingdom is getting longer and longer. And it costs extra money for the tourists to get in. Read more Close
The waiting list for boat trips to the Galapagos’ fabulous island kingdom is getting longer and longer.
I gladly paid $150 for the chance to admire and help protect the island kingdom’s unique surface and underwater flora and fauna.
Entrance fees or tourism tax are the rule and not the exception for getting up close and personal with the planet’s most desirable places.
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A visit to the five Unesco-protected Cinqueterra villages near Genoa costs just €7.50. Read more Close
The demand for authentic, intact travel destinations will grow explosively throughout our century.
More and more of them will put up the “No Entry” sign as a last resort to keep turbo tourism at bay.
The fastest growing holiday segment is cruises, where more and more vessels, built for just over five thousand passengers on board, are on the berth.
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Antarctic cruise. Stricter regulations are expected. Read more Close
The most popular and most expensive cruise destinations are located in the Arctic and Antarctic, whose fragile ecosystems are most affected by climate change. An overcapacity of luxury vessels could be the result when the international maritime organization IMO is expected to come up with a more restrictive set of regulations.
In the United States, tourism managers are discussing among themselves whether a name change is necessary for places where natural attractions are about to be lost.
Glacier Bay is a favorite port of call for Alaska travelers, despite the glaciers being threatened.
Svalbard is expected to be subject to stricter rules for maritime tourism. Read more Close
Svalbard is expected to be subject to stricter rules for maritime tourism, both in terms of vessel size, disembarkation and number of passengers.
Today, all visitors to Svalbard are subject to an environmental tax of NOK 150.
Scarcity benefits at risk
Significantly stricter environmental restrictions on the number of visitors and behavior can be expected for all exotic ‘scarcity goods’ in the coming years, not only off the beaten track but where over-tourism threatens historic architecture and fragile infrastructure around the Mediterranean.
Alarm signal flashes for Acropolis. You can experience rush hour traffic all the way from the port of Piraeus to Athens. Read more Close
It is not difficult to bring up examples of exposed destinations in the process of exceeding a tipping point – a turning point where wear and tear is irreversible.
Venice is the most talked about example, with its population of just under 60,000 permanent residents in 2019 hosted 24 million tourists.
Here, and in cities such as Florence, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Kyoto, Prague and Athens, a growing number of permanent residents complain of the feeling of playing the role of an extra in an open-air museum where they are left with the bill for security, washing, restoration and cleaning.
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Geiranger experiences tourist queues every summer.
A not unknown phenomenon here in Norway as well, such as in Bergen, Geiranger and Lofoten.
– The tour operators must take their share of the responsibility, says Justin Francis. His online agency www.responsibletravel.com, which offers trips with meaning and eco-content, has become a great success.
In recent times, I have participated in international ‘think tanks’ and expert panels where we have been faced with the following dilemma: How to solve the acute financial challenges the tourism industry had been subjected to at the same time as preventing the destination’s long-term, climate-created ecology from being damaged ? And without the gap between rich and poor growing further?
An immediate answer that almost gives itself: the tourism industry’s outdated “the more visitors, the better” model must give way to the “polluter pays” and “precautionary” principles.
What is not as obvious: How politicians and tourism leaders must learn to look ahead, beyond the next election period.
2023-09-10 05:58:14
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