Sustainable Tourism in Global Perspective: Part 4

Sustainable Tourism and Climate Change

by Johan Hattingh, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University

IN THE 2024 survey, respondents indicated that they are taking note of climate change and will closely monitor it as it unfolds, but they have not yet experienced any significant impacts on tourists or their tourism product.

As one respondent summarised: "We can only speculate about how elements of climate change might affect our market-especially overseas clients. As far as we can see, it might reduce the number of visitors, but we believe, based on our experience, that people from the Northern Hemisphere will always want to travel to South Africa."

The same realism is evident in another response: "Substantial climate change could likely have a significant impact on sustainable development and tourism. So far, its effects in Hermanus and the Western Cape have been limited to manageable seasonal fluctuations. For example, we have not yet had to deal with large-scale rising water levels or unbearable storm weather, although it is speculated that we are currently experiencing the hottest summer season in decades. Tourism figures support the above. There has been no decline in seasonal tourism in this area; on the contrary, the prevailing sentiment is that especially European tourism continues to increase."

Aware of the major debates and predictions about climate change, respondents agreed that adapting to climate change will be essential when it begins to affect them directly. However, there is still significant uncertainty about the nature of the impact climate change may have and the timeframes in which it will occur.

Against this backdrop, it was interesting and important to see, between the lines of the responses, signs of climate change that strongly resonate with international perspectives on it.

First, there is the realisation that climate change is a reality; it is human-made, the result of human actions and inactions; it is dangerous because it negatively affects sustainable development, economic growth, health, and water and food security; and, according to scientists, it is unfolding faster than initially predicted.

Second, there is the insight that tourism is not negatively affected by climate change but also contributes to climate change. As one respondent put it with a strong qualification: "We also use things like vehicles and gas refrigerators, but we don’t really contribute to climate change in our own small footprint."

It is an open question whether every small ecological footprint in terms of climate change is negligible, because it is precisely billions of small ecological footprints that add up to one massive global problem.

Conversely, a large part of the solution to climate change is surely that each of us, in our own small way, contributes to using fewer carbon-based fuels and even phasing them out, although it will take time to get it right. In any case, each of the billions of small contributions also adds up on the positive side.

This brings us to the third insight that emerges between the lines: that climate change and unsustainable development are two sides of the same major problem. Climate change undermines sustainable development, and unsustainable development fuels and intensifies climate change.

This means that climate change, like sustainable development and tourism, will look different in different places and will therefore require place-specific ecological wisdom to adapt to in a specific region or area.

It also means that the things we do to promote sustainable development and tourism can simultaneously be done to anticipate, mitigate, and/or adapt to climate change.

The ongoing mental expansion needed to ensure sustainable development and tourism is the same kind of mental expansion needed to recognize and address climate change.

The same applies to the processes of collaboration required to ensure sustainable development and tourism: it is possible to collaborate with others in the region in such a way that actions to ensure sustainability can simultaneously be actions to mitigate or adapt to climate change. These co-benefits are like catching two fish with one net.

And therefore, it is conceivable to combine environmental education for sustainable development and tourism with environmental education about climate change. They are two sides of the same coin.

To make this possible, it will likely not be necessary to develop new tourist experiences. We could add the dimension of climate and climate change to the story surrounding existing tourist experiences, alongside the dimensions of environmental conservation, nature, culture, and heritage that are already told and shared.

Then something as modest as indigenous plants in a region or on a residential plot could be an ideal starting point for conversations about climate adaptation and the economical use of water, and what people can learn from it about quenching their thirst or living sustainably.