Global warming, Climate Change and Tourism

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It is often said that farmers are on the front lines dealing with global warming, as their livelihoods being completely dependent on the weather. Now the farmers are not alone to face the impact of global warming, the tour operators and resort owners are not left far behind from its impact.
This month, the United Nations convened a conference, "Climate Change and Tourism," for tour operators and officials from nearly 100 countries to discuss the impact of global warming on their livelihoods. "The tourism industry must adapt rapidly," the final report concluded.
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In the developed world, tour operators do not generally face a crisis, though profits will depend on successful adjustment. But along the equator, keeping the tourist industry afloat is often a matter of national survival. In much of Africa for instance, tourism is the major source of income and often the only source of foreign currency.
Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organization, said by telephone from the meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland that "The entire tourism product will be affected - every destination has a climate-related component." He further added if the climate is going to change, "which we know it will, we'd all better adapt."
"Some people are going to find that they had tourism before and don't now," Lipman said. "In the Canadian Rockies it may be the reverse."
For some destinations, both warm and cold, climate change is already having an impact on tourism and planning.
Imagine a ski resort whose chairlifts are in the lower reaches of mountains, without decent snow. Or a scuba club whose reefs succumbed to warmer and stormier seas or a golfing hotel in a district where water shortages made it impossible to keep fairways green. All are real possibilities, industry experts say, and in fact, early effects are already being felt.
Fijian planners are trying to gauge the course of such change and set new standards, like guideline for how far above the water bungalows should be built to be safe if the sea level rises. "At the moment the effect is subtle, but we don't want our reefs - our island - to disappear," Kaumaitotoya said.
"Tourism is the vehicle for poverty alleviation in Fiji - that's how important it has become," said Banuve Kaumaitotoya, permanent secretary of Fiji's new Ministry of Tourism and Environment, who attended the Davos conference. "Without it, our economy would collapse. So we have to plan to mitigate and adapt to climate change."
At the Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in Canada, glaciers are receding and good snow is found higher up the mountain than 10 years ago. "We've been building lifts higher, in more snow-reliant zones to give us more stability," said Arthur De Jong, the mountain planning and environment resource manager at the resort.
In addition, the resort has a broader green plan. It is making energy to run the lifts from snow runoff on the mountain. Its ski village is car free. And the resort has diversified from snow and it now has a booming summer business as well.
But undertaking new engineering projects and computer simulations take money and expertise that are in short supply in much of the world.
"Adaptation is expensive and the finances are a big challenge for place like Kenya," said Judith Gona, executive director of Ecotourism Kenya, which is trying to make that country's travel industry greener.
In the short term, global warming provides opportunities too, especially in temperate zones. Warming trends have lengthened the golfing season in Antalya, Turkey, by over a month, said Ugur Budak, golf coordinator of Akkanat Holdings there.
Golfing used to begin in March. But tourists from Britain and Germany are now coming to Antalya in February. "Winters are milder so the effect on us for now is good," Budak said. So far there had not been problems like the water shortages experienced in other parts of the world, he said, "But we know we could be vulnerable in the future."
At the end of the Davos conference, the UN World Tourism Organization advised travelers to take the climate into account and "where possible to reduce their carbon footprint." But if Europeans stop flying to Fiji or Antalya, poverty will worsen, tourism officials said.