Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
low-carbon approaches will bring a response to meet changing consumer
expectations and for opportunities to reduce costs (Lynes and Dredge, 2006).
There are a few cases of this happening now, but the price of resources will
determine a decidedly different pace of change. The alternative will be to con-
tinue to compromise ecological systems to the point of collapse.
It is probable that if the tourism sector cannot reach for new solutions,
governments will increase intervention to secure the welfare of their citizens
by introducing regulation to avoid worst-case scenarios (TEEB, 2009). Thus,
real changes to the current system (the moment of change) will happen in
response to a cluster of external factors: an increasingly rapid decline of
ecological systems, an intensity of use of finite resources and greater tangible
impacts of climatic change. The extent, pattern and nature of the change
will depend on a wide range of variables. Of these, three will be of utmost
importance: the pace in which the effects of climatic change impinge on
tourism destinations (as the evidence to date indicates that it is a sector
which is slow to react); the extent to which governments introduce regulation
regarding use of resources such as carbon/energy quotas or trading certificates;
and, finally, shifts in market behaviour will occur partly as a response to
economic events (the trigger), but also in relation to environmental concerns.
In the face of more risk-laden travel, people are likely to opt for more secure,
less demanding holidays. The period of transition will involve the following
inputs into the system, many of which will be parallel or overlapping
in nature.
Policy
Policy development will be essential in the process of directing change. One
prelude to a progressive emerging policy framework can be seen with regard
to an example from the European Union. Within recent EU policy develop-
ment there has been some attempt to specifically address wider sustainable
development issues within the tourism sector; for example, in a communica-
tion on sustainable tourism (COM 2003). This was followed by the
establishment of an advisory group on sustainable tourism, launched in 2004.
This culminated in a report from the group which highlighted the climate
change impacts of tourism and made a number of recommendations (see Table
10.1). These endorse slow travel.
Clearly, such a document does not represent formal policy; however, it
offers a parallel to that being adopted by UNEP. The gestation time for the
formalization of such policy frameworks remains a cause for concern. Five
years on from the initial thrust of policy advice on tourism in 2001, the EU
reported that tourism businesses have barely embraced sustainable develop-
ment (Commission for the European Communities, 2006).
The principal and fundamental change likely to be seen in all policy frame-
works will be the framing of all tourism development within the ecological
limits of climatic change. Reduced use of resources has been advised in
previous pronouncements, but there is likely to be a hardening line as fore-
casted depletion becomes reality. The ecological principles of conservation,
resource reduction and carbon reduction will become imperatives, as will the
