Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism - Term Paper Example

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORT Name Course Tutor Date Introduction The tourism industry and sector of most countries has been a major contributor in global economic development through a variety of direct or indirect ways. Tourism has been and still is the most climate sensitive or dependent economic sector of the world’s economy. Most tourist destinations depend on climate not only for attraction but also for sun and sea or winter sport vacations as well as environmental resources such as biodiversity and wildlife (Becken, 2007). Despite the dependence on climate, tourism has also been associated with climate change, especially with stress on its contribution to global warming. It is with no doubt, the emission of greenhouse gases in the tourism sector contributes a lot to climate change (Hernandez & Ryan, 2011). In fact, 5% of all the carbon emissions on the earth’s surface are accounted for by tourism (Becken, 2007). This has been through activities, transport, accommodation as well as a plethora of other ways and means that release some percentage of carbon as will be discussed in this report. Consequently, most debates on climate change have been centered around the contribution of tourism on environmental change. Most stakeholders have been on the forefront to see to it that the effects are mitigated. The aim of this report is to evaluate the contribution of tourism on environmental change with much emphasis on climate change. Contribution of Tourism on Climate Change In a much similar way like all other sectors, tourism contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The tourism industry accounts for 5% of all the emissions from anthropogenic activities recorded on earth (Gössling, 2011). The emissions are mostly associated with transport air, land and sea. Aviation sector accounts for 40% of the entire carbon footprint from the sector; this is closely followed by car transport that accounts for 32% of all the emissions (Becken, 2007). The other emissions are accounted for by accommodation facilities and development activities that account for 21% (Gössling, 2011). Other transport forms such as motor vehicle and cruise ships account for 3% (Gössling, 2011). Lastly, all the activities that are within the industry further account for 4% of all the emissions. Gössling (2011) asserts that it is plausible to say that tourism as an industry has a significant contribution to climate change through exacerbating the chance of global warming that has profound effects on climate. The transport industry most so the aviation industry is widely used by tourists as they explore different places across the globe. Some of the greenhouse gases released in the aviation industry include nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide gases (Becken, 2007). The flight altitude has confounding impact on global warming. Radiative forcing has been used to calculate the entire contribution of aviation in the tourism industry to global warming (Gössling, 2011). It measures the extent to which the greenhouse gases emission raise the global average temperatures in a specified period. The emissions vary depending on the number of trips covered and thus different radiative forcing indices with the implication of different emission rates (Gössling, 2011). For long distance the emission is about 9 tonnes of CO2 (Gössling, 2011). However, on average a single tourist journey generate 0.25 tonnes of CO2 emissions. International tourist travel alone contributes to 16% of the whole emission from the tourism sector (Hernandez & Ryan, 2011). There are also instances where forests that act as carbon sinks have been cleared to pave way for development of infrastructure (Gössling, 2011). These activities have also increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The restaurants also burn fossil fuels especially when using liquid petroleum gases in cooking (Hall et al., 2013). This has also contributed to the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. Tourists use cars to cruise into the interior areas on land. This also releases a lot of carbon dioxide gas as well as a range of other greenhouse gases that significantly affect the atmosphere in one way or the other (Gössling, 2011). These gases have the ability to remain suspended in the atmosphere for long periods of time. With the need of proper infrastructure that attracts tourists, there have been a number of development activities instituted. These include the construction of roads and buildings especially hotels. A significant amount of carbon dioxide is released in the process chipping into the total amount of CO2 released in the tourism sector (Gössling, 2011). Additionally, the range of products that are used in the accommodation facilities not forgetting the mobile phones and other electronics, have the capability of releasing carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere (Gössling, 2011). This combined with the other sources also lead to climate change that affects not only tourism itself but also the world in general (Hernandez & Ryan, 2011). The result of the increase in the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been elevation of temperatures. Environmental Change The increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been linked with a variety of environmental changes. The most significant change has been global warming. The increase in these gases causes the depletion of the ozone layer that cushions planet earth from harmful cosmic radiations. This has increased the amount of temperature on the earth surface causing the melting of icecaps, reduction in the formation of snow, shifting in seasons and the rise in the sea level (Ramasamy & Swamy, 2012). The above effects have led to the loss of biodiversity as well as reduction in the number of forest covers. As a result, most ecological niches have been significantly destroyed to the level of extinction of the biotic components of the environment (Hall, Scott, & Gössling, 2013). There has also been increase in the number of hurricanes and storms that affect the costal tourism. Additionally, the increased temperature also reduces the flow of rivers through creating drought like conditions that have many effects on the environment (Ramasamy & Swamy, 2012). Most significant environmental changes have been experienced in the coastal and mountain areas especially the ice-capped mountains. Impacts of Climate Change on Tourism in the Next Ten Years Tourism and climate change can be explained two fold. This is because tourism affects climate through climate change and the climate change resultantly affects tourism significantly as well. Climate is s useful resource in tourism, since it determines the choice of destinations as well as a rage of tourism activities (Buckley, 2011). Climate change is likely to impact the competitive relationships that exist between the destinations and thus the profitability of tourism in the next decade (Hall et al., 2013). This is because the costs of operation will be high (Buckley, 2011). There is a high likelihood of environmental changes that will result in the loss of biodiversity, reduced aesthetic scope of the landscape, alteration in agricultural production, damage of infrastructure, and increase in the cases of vector-borne diseases (Buckley, 2011; Hall et al., 2013). These alterations are likely to affect the travel of tourists from one place to the other. The shift in demand will cause negative consequences in terms of low return on investments in the tourism industry. The reduction in the number of ice-caped mountain ranges reduces the demand for tourism activities especially those that are dependent on snow. Most tourist destinations have invested heavily in the artificial snow making machines (Ramasamy & Swamy, 2012). However, the increase in temperatures also affects the artificial snow in much similar way as the natural snows. Ramasamy & Swamy (2012), note that the melted ice is deposits in the seas and oceans cause an increase in sea levels. There has been a close relationship between the erosion of the beeches as well as their submersion in water. This reduces the number of beaches that are major tourist destinations (Ramasamy & Swamy, 2012). As the temperatures increase in the next decade and beyond, there shall be an increase in the number of beaches that are submerged as the sea levels rise. The tourism sector is therefore likely to incur reduced statistics as people will shift to some forms of tourism such as event tourism (Hall et al., 2013). The sea animals are also affected due to the climate change as some end up dying and becoming extinct. This will significantly affect the nature based tourism (Ramasamy & Swamy, 2012). As the number of international tourism travel increases due to development of technology, there will also be the increase in climate change that will impact the tourism positively and negatively. Conclusion There is a significant contribution of tourism in climate change that results in the change of the environment too as can be seen in the paper. The most significant contribution is through the increase in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions especially CO2. As can be seen in the paper the CO2 in tourism industry is released from human activities like accommodation, transport and other sources outlined in the paper all contributing 5% of the earth’s total carbon emission. While this amount is low in percentage it greatly counts as there are environmental changes that also have direct and indirect effects on tourism as have been shown in the paper. The impacts that are likely to be experienced in the next decade and beyond would impact tourism significantly as shown in the paper. Most importantly, governments and policy makers should use the above statistics to come up with measures that would at least reduce the contribution of tourism in climate change. Bibliography Becken, S. 2007, “Tourists’ Perception of International Air Travel’s Impact on the Global Climate and Potential Climate Change Policies”. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(4), 351-368. Buckley, R. (2011). Tourism Under Climate Change: Will Slow Travel Supersede Short Breaks? AMBIO, 40(3), 328–331. Doi: 10.1007/s13280-010-0100-x. Gössling, S. 2011, “Carbon management in tourism: Mitigating the impacts on climate change”. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Hall, C. M., Scott, D., & Gössling, S. 2013, “The Primacy of Climate Change for Sustainable International Tourism”. Sustainable Development, 21(2), 112-121. Hernandez, A. B., & Ryan, G. 2011, “Coping with Climate Change in the Tourism Industry: A Review and Agenda for Future Research”. Tourism and Hospitality Management, 17(1), 79-90. Ramasamy, R., & Swamy, A. 2012, “Global Warming, Climate Change and Tourism: A Review of Literature”. Special issue: Sustainability, Tourism & Environment in the Shift of a Millennium: A Peripheral View, 6(3), 72-98. Read More