The Future Of Tourism

Amitav Ghosh spoke at the Outlook Traveller Responsible Tourism Summit about the impact of tourism on climate change and, more importantly, about the impact of climate change on tourism.

- Amitav Ghosh

I love to travel. I’ve written a great deal about travel. I’ve been travelling all my life. I enjoy fine hotels and good travel destinations and so on. So, being familiar with tourism and the travel industries, I know that these industries care a lot about perception. Tourism is in many ways about creating positive impressions, about making oneself feel good and, I’m sure, making customers and clients feel good. In light of that, some of you may find what I’m going to say rather jarring. Please don’t, however, interpret what I’m going to say as a criticism directed towards anyone in particular. That is not my intention at all. What I hope to do is to convey a realistic impression of the situation that we are all in, in relation to tourism, the climate and much else. Let me say also that much of what I’m going to say is supported by tourism industry analysts and specialists. There’s been the Djerba declaration by tourism industry professionals in 2003; there was the Davos Declaration in 2006. So, both these declarations accept that climate change is happening, it’s manmade and that it’s the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. And climate change and human activity are inseparable, especially industrial and economic activity. So let’s ask, what is the tourism industry’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions?