What next for tourism? Reflections on COP29 and the journey ahead.

From Travalyst and the Travel Foundation

Last week, we saw an important milestone for our industry as the COP29 climate conference included tourism in the Action Agenda for the first time. Tourism now has a seat at the table; recognised as a fundamental component for building a better, more sustainable future. Leaders from across the globe united to discuss ambitious climate action commitments tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities within the sector, and these commitments have renewed our collective optimism.

Both Travalyst and the Travel Foundation were present at COP29 in Azerbaijan, contributing to discussions throughout the Thematic Day for tourism and calling for action. Collaboration is core to both of our organisations, as we know the systemic transformation we aim to drive, must be tackled as one. In the spirit of collaboration, we reflect on the discussions at COP29 together and share our thoughts on the journey ahead:

Increasing the commitment to action

The adoption of the COP29 Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism (known as the Baku Declaration) is an important step that we hope will deepen commitments by encouraging more active participation from national governments. This Declaration, backed by more than 50 countries at COP29, acknowledges the need for tourism to be considered in national decarbonisation plans such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) linked to the Paris Agreement.

We need far-reaching, system-wide change that addresses tourism’s largest emissions sources by promoting low and zero-emissions solutions that foster resilience across the sector. The only way to achieve this is with a significant shift in how resources are allocated and we heard growing calls for new financing mechanisms, such as public-private-nonprofit partnerships, to fund resilience-building initiatives at scale.

A degree of collaboration never before seen

The Baku Declaration also acknowledges that effective climate action requires collaborative efforts at local, national, regional, and global levels. The severity and scale of the challenge we face requires a degree of collaboration never before seen. Both Travalyst and the Travel Foundation are independent not-for-profits that are well-positioned to coordinate system-wide collaboration and catalyse change globally: Travalyst through its powerful coalition of the biggest brands in travel and technology and the Travel Foundation through its extensive network of global destinations and supporting organisations, through which it delivers its capacity building and research initiatives.?

The Glasgow Declaration

The Baku Declaration recalls the existing Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, which commits its signatories of tourism companies, destinations and supporting organisations to publish climate action plans and report annually on progress. With the number of signatories now standing at around 900 (with 58 new signatories announced at COP29), progress is being made but there is still huge scope for increased participation. We would like to see more active participation of national governments to promote the Glasgow Declaration, and in turn for more travel companies and destinations to get onboard.

Data-driven solutions

Tourism needs a united approach to the effective use and availability of consistent, credible, compliant sustainability data across the sector. To achieve the Baku Declaration’s call for effective mitigation measures through promoting low and zero-emissions transportation options, both Travalyst and the Travel Foundation would welcome a unified approach to global tourism emissions data.?This includes the alignment of the criteria underpinning CO2e methodology for transport emission calculations at a global level which, if backed by all relevant stakeholders, could serve as reliable data points globally.

Both of our organisations support the travel and tourism industry to use data to promote the business case for climate action. Travalyst by centralising the collection and distribution of sustainability data to enable the industry to measure impact, target supply and demand interventions, and the Travel Foundation through an emerging focus on the identification of risk for destinations.

The Travalyst coalition has already demonstrated that a collaborative approach to such data is possible at scale, having aligned its partners behind a single method to estimate flight emissions, resulting in this data appearing in over 65 billion flight searches. Travalyst now aims to build on this success for the accommodation sector, in order to drive similar levels of adoption and scale, through the building of a travel and tourism sustainability Data Hub.

Meanwhile, the Travel Foundation aims to support the sector, particularly destinations, to better understand what the future might look like through tools like scenario planning and risk profiling, helping to identify urgent priorities and making a case for increased investment and innovation on the ground.

Climate Justice

True climate leadership requires embedding justice into every part of the tourism system. This means supporting the most vulnerable communities and amplifying marginalised voices. The Travel Foundation’s recent research report, Climate Justice in Tourism: an introductory guide, published with partners earlier this year, calls for action to make emissions fairer, for instance through a frequent flyer levy, given that 1% of the world’s population (mostly from richer countries) is responsible for over 50% of aviation emissions, and with emissions expected to keep growing. Other solutions include directing tourism-generated revenues toward community resilience projects, fostering inclusive governance within destinations and the creation of a global Loss and Damage Fund for Tourism that would enable resources to be directed to destinations hardest hit by climate change, addressing both immediate needs and long-term resilience.?

The sights of both organisations are now firmly set on what needs to happen before COP30 in Belém, Brazil next year, where we expect tourism to maintain its position as an area of focus. Travalyst and the Travel Foundation will continue to work collaboratively across the travel and tourism ecosystem to lead the way.