Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and nebulous character makes its environmental impact sometimes diffi cult to determine, so
it is not surprising that tourism can be accused of being a laggard in engaging with environ-
mental discourses. As a senior representative of the UNWTO comments: 'progress towards
sustainable development of tourism is hardly satisfactory while sustainable practices are
restricted to a few niche markets, with the rest of the tourism industry keeping its priorities
clearly on profi t rather than sustainability' (Younis, 2003: 13).
Accepting Dryzeck's (1997) synopsis of environmental discourses as a departure from
the existing terms of industrialisation, without recognition of associated environmental
problems, environmental discourses will not emerge. This is exemplifi ed in the debate over
aviation's contribution to the most prominent environmental issue challenging the future
well-being of global society, i.e. global warming and climate change.
Whilst the scientifi c measurement of aviation's contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions is contested, its future contribution to the percentage total of GHG emissions will
increase as demand continues to grow and other industries utilise carbon emission reducing
technologies or enter into cap and trading schemes. In encouraging the industry to entertain
an environmental discourse, critically the contribution of aviation to climate change has
become an issue of politics and the media (see also Duval and Koo, Chapter 27 of t h i s volu me ).
The aviation industry's reluctance to engage in an environmental discourse has been likened
by Mark Ellingham, editor of Rough Guides and Lonely Planet topics, to the denial of the
tobacco industry over links to cancer (Barkham, 2006). The environmental discourse now
employed by the industry is technocentric and prosaic, with an emphasis upon the mitigation
of the problem through technological innovation and improved management systems.
Whilst government has played a part in forcing the aviation industry to recognise its
contribution to GHG emissions, its own discourse, though more imaginative, is also one of
environmentalism. Emphasis is placed on the establishment of a market for GHGs and carbon
trading schemes, for example the incorporation of aviation emissions into the European
Union Emission Trading Scheme, which has the aim of helping member states meet their key
obligations and progress towards low-carbon economies (European Union, 2005). However,
as Pearce et al. (1988) noted over twenty years ago, even if markets for environmental services
are eventually generated, there is no guarantee this can be achieved before they are extin-
guished or irreparably damaged (see also Butler, Chapter 3 in this volume). Neither is it
certain that markets are able to accurately refl ect the plurality of nature's values in a mean-
ingful way, permitting an individual to make a fully informed and purposive choice between
the alternative uses of resources.
In the context of the aviation market, an environmental discourse from tourists is also weak
or emergent. In an environmental attitudinal survey of 1,192 households in the United Kingdom,
although four out of fi ve households believed that climate change was already happening and
will affect them, only 22 per cent were willing to fl y less, i.e. fl ying to one holiday destination
per annum rather than two (Energy Saving Trust, 2007). Similarly, in focus group meetings
with tourists in New Zealand, Becken (2007) found reluctance from tourists to take voluntary
initiatives and be proactive in addressing the global impact of air travel. Conversely to the fi nd-
ings of these studies, there is anecdotal evidence that there is a growing level of culpability about
fl ying, at least to the extent where it is now more widely discussed as an environmental issue.
Although anecdotal and not academic research, Asthama and McKie (2005) and Chesshyre
(2005) observed in interviews with tourists that there was a realisation that fl ying was a type of
behaviour that was discordant with an environmentally conscious lifestyle.
Infl uential in the establishment of an environmental discourse among tourists is the atten-
tion given to the environmental impact of tourism in guidebooks. Two of the best-selling
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search