With near unanimity, the time for taking action to mitigate climate challenges is now, with an official roadmap of Sustainable Development Goals to 2030 and the importance of collective environmental stewardship. Consumer attitudes are also shifting in the right direction, with the majority of consumers seeking to have a positive impact on the environment. Travel brands are not resting on their laurels, deploying technology to instigate behavioural change and rewarding sustainable actions.
A perfect storm has been unleashed. The impacts of tourism (good and bad) are ever more under scrutiny at every level, as the challenge of achieving sustainable, low-impact growth at a local and global level comes into sharp relief.
The challenges for destinations is knowing when they have reached the optimum level of carrying capacity, especially where it concerns capacity management and the need to ensure the right balance of visitors and residents.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals provide the necessary roadmap for businesses, governments and consumers. A major push will also be required to ensure the right type of data is collated and used to measure tourism impacts.
Air travel is one of the biggest contributors to the travel industry’s carbon emissions, particularly long haul flights. However, electric aircraft are only expected by 2025, and the use of alternative fuels will take longer to integrate.
Travel brands and start-ups are taking things into their own hands, deploying technology to address problems such as over-tourism by providing alternative choices and encouraging visitors to explore further and deeper, beyond the tourist routes.
With apps starting from as little as USD5,000, brands are rewarding good behaviour (whether for healthy, ethical or sustainable actions), optimising machine learning and algorithms to spur real change in consumer behaviour.
There is no silver bullet that will fix the world’s climate challenges, and it will require fundamental changes in consumer behaviour, government policy and company actions to deliver on the ambitious goals set out and avert climate chaos.
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