Global change

Global tourism is closely linked to climate change. Climate changes currently taking place and predicted have impacted and will continue to impact upon the pattern of visitor activity and threaten the financial viability of tourism-related enterprises. The impacts of climate change on tourism are likely to manifest themselves in a number of different ways according to local prevailing conditions. Overall however it is likely to increase the severity and frequency of storms and severe weather events, sea level rise and temperatures. The most serious impacts are likely to result from an increase in sea level, which will particularly affect small and low lying island states, such as the Maldives.

Tourism involves the movement of people from their homes to other destinations and accounts for about 50% of traffic movements. Rapidly increasing air traffic - with the number of international travellers is expected to increase from 594 million in 1996 to 1.6 billion by 2020 - contributes about 2.5% of the production of CO², thus making tourism a significant contributor to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Introduction of an aviation fuel tax throughout the European Union - and preferably worldwide - and a shift to energy efficient tourism developments are examples of recommendations that would help curb climate change impacts.