The figures are there: tourism represents about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Worse: in 2019, emissions related to leisure travel were expected to increase by at least 25% by 2030 in the case of a business as
usual
scenario .
To help the sector determine what urgently needs to be reviewed, the World Tourism Organization (WTO), an offshoot of the United Nations, has conducted the first global survey of the climate action efforts of travel stakeholders.
A few days ago, she revealed the results in a report (downloadable here).
To carry it out, 1,139 companies (mainly accommodation and tour operators), destinations and organizations from 131 countries were questioned between June and August 2021. Measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, compensation and mitigation of these emissions, planning their climate action… UNWTO scrutinized their initiatives to reduce their impact on the environment.
We have gone through this copious report for you.
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75% of tourism professionals say they are "committed to the climate"
Three quarters of travel professionals claim to be committed to the climate.
AdobeStock - Rico Löb
Good news opens this report: 75% of tourism professionals claim to be “committed to the climate”.
The engine of such a commitment?
The fact that their professional activity and their environment have been “impacted” by climate change.
The UNWTO survey lists the multiple impacts of global warming on tourist destinations, regardless of the region of the globe.
These consequences can take the form of episodes of drought, fires, floods or lack of snow.
The tourism players interviewed also deplore the increase in the cost of their activity, linked to the increase in the price of rare resources such as water.
They also point out the difficulty of planning activities by integrating the hazard of temperature and climate variations.
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75% of tourism players do not measure their greenhouse gas emissions
Several countries have suffered from flooding due to global warming.
France too.
Adobe Stock - Sebastien Rabany
The World Tourism Organization draws up a less encouraging observation: more than three quarters (75.4%) of respondents do not measure their greenhouse gas emissions.
A large proportion of them (38.7%) explain that they do not know how to carry out such a costing.
Conversely, 20.7% of tourism professionals are committed to measuring their emissions.
Among them, there are both tourism companies (26.8% of them do so) and destinations (10% do so).
For information purposes, “greenhouse gas balance” means the evaluation of the total volume of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere over a year by the activities of an entity (company or destination).
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68% of respondents do not offset their greenhouse gas emissions
Only 10% of tourism players claim to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
AdobeStock - Dynamoland
Another pitfall highlighted by the World Tourism Organization: the absence for many of compensation for their greenhouse gas emissions.
This term covers all the measures making it possible to offset the emissions produced by an entity.
To do this, the entity usually goes through a company that acts as an intermediary with the representatives of the project offsetting the emissions.
This project can be related to reforestation as well as to the improvement of waste management, for example.
And, as with that of measuring greenhouse gas emissions, tourism professionals still have room for improvement on this issue.
Indeed, 68.7% of respondents do not compensate.
10.7% of respondents do so, in the form of reforestation projects,
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The UNWTO's message in brief: on many points, tourism professionals still need to improve and take a more active part in the fight against global warming.
During the survey, most tourism stakeholders said they needed more support to be able to take effective and consistent action.
UNWTO agrees with stressing the need for joint development of tools and training to support tourism professionals in this effort.