Kicking sand in the face of climate change
How is the tourism industry adjusting to climate change?
Part 1 Coastal & beach destinations
Whether it’s ski slopes or beach resorts, global warming is impacting travel and tourism, an industry worth an estimated US5.81 trillion worldwide in 20211. In some areas the impact is marginal, while in others it has forced entire resorts to adapt and some to cease operating completely.
What follows is the first of a three-blog series which explores vulnerable tourist destinations around the world and their strategies to survive. Part one centres on coasts and beaches.
Warmer waters
Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Situated off the northeast coast of Australia, this natural wonder stretches across nearly 350,000 sq km, making it the largest coral reef system on the planet. An industry in itself, it has generated 64,000 jobs and contributed €4.1 billion towards Australia’s economy.2 Aerial surveys nevertheless indicate that as much as 60 percent of the reef’s corals are dying. This is a result of rising sea temperatures prompting the coral to expel microscopic algae that reside in their tissues. Without this protective algae, these tissues become transparent, revealing their white skeleton. This ‘coral bleaching’ causes the coral to deteriorate and become prone to diseases and mass die-offs.
Reducing greenhouse gases will reduce further harm to this and many other ecosystems, but in the meantime seeding millions of juvenile corals, or heat-tolerant corals, on selected reefs can help restore this remarkable ecosystem. While coral reefs are withdrawing from equatorial waters, new reefs are forming further from the equator in subtropical seas.
Southern Mediterranean: The grand summer get-away in July and August to the golden beaches of the Mediterranean may be restricted due to the threat of unbearably hot weather. The 2022 IPCC report warned that, in the coming decades, warming across the Mediterranean will be about 20 percent greater than global averages. With the progressive tropicalisation of the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 1,000 invasive species have migrated to it, including rabbit fish, now popular in Turkish waters.
A likely outcome is that tourism in this region will adapt through a lengthier season, with holidaymakers travelling earlier or later to steer clear of the months when temperatures could consistently reach 40? C. Air conditioning, now the norm, will become an essential requirement.
Disappearing beaches
Gambia: Coastal resorts in all countries are cherished for their broad sandy beaches. Gambia is no exception, yet the vast expanses of coastline in this small West African country are being eroded by rising sea levels and storm surges, leaving behind an ever-narrowing strip of sandy beach. A notable concern, given that tourism in Gambia accounts for roughly 20 percent of its GDP. Within the next 50 years, its shorelines are forecasted to retreat by 25-50m and this could rise to 40-80m by 2100. This is in addition to the already occurring coastal erosion. Considering that most of the world’s beaches are no wider than 50-100m, Gambia isn’t the only country facing this threat. Phan Thiet, Vietnam; Key West, Florida; Seychelles; Venice, Italy; Tacloban, Philippines and many more thin-strip beaches are in danger.
Conventional methods of beach protection using hard structures, such as breakwaters and groynes, do not always prove effective at mitigating the effects of sea level rise. Nature-based solutions, such as the Dutch ‘Zandmotor’ or ‘sand engine’, has displayed promising results. This innovation involves immense amounts of dredged sand pumped in to nourish the beach, with a design to achieve additional benefits such as enhancing the beach or creating a habitat. The sand is then distributed by waves and tides along the neighbouring coast, offsetting erosion with protection that can last up to 20-30 years. This engineering technique proved successful in safeguarding central Holland in the Netherlands, and the UK’s strategically significant Bacton Gas Terminal and two nearby villages in Norfolk, England.
Sea level rise
On average, sea levels are anticipated to rise to 30cm over the course of the next 30 years, making storm surges an even higher threat to low-lying countries. Before the end of the century, certain tourist locations could disappear entirely. The Maldives sits at just 1.3m above sea level. Shauna Aminath, its environment minister, stated at COP27 that every single island was being eroded and that fresh drinking water in the Maldives was becoming scarce.
The dreamy palm tree fringed beaches of the Caribbean islands are also at risk. A report3 released in 2012, analysing 906 resorts across 19 Caribbean countries, calculated that 29 percent of resort properties would be partially or completely deluged by a one metre rise in sea level with 49-60 percent resort properties at risk of beach erosion damage.
Building in resiliency
A warmer globe also means more powerful hurricanes, which emphasise the demand for Caribbean islands to have climate resilient infrastructure. Good instances include the Princess Juliana International Airport on St Maarten which is designed to be hurricane and earthquake proof and the newly opened airport terminal on Sint Eustatius, which was constructed to cope with increased passenger traffic and to withstand a category 4 hurricane.
As ever, it’s a case of developing climate resilience where it’s achievable while confronting the leading cause of climate change which is man-made.
Even in a transforming world, the tourism industry will be resilient. It will adapt. Aircraft and ships will shift to zero carbon fuels and sustainability and environmental responsibility will appear even more frequently. Still, for future generations, some of the beach holidays we appreciated in our adolescence may not look and feel quite the same.
1 Travel and Tourism 2021, Statista 2022 https://www.statista.com/statistics/233223/travel-and-tourism--total-economic-contribution-worldwide/
2 Deloitte Access Economics https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-great-barrier-reef-230617.pdf
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1 年Great article series that resonates with our belief that tourism destinations and tourists are aware of the rise in weather and climate risks. Our take at WETTERHELD is to offer rain insurance (as heavy rains follow periods of drought) and later heat insurance to consumers directly, with a great demand so far in Germany.