I f a company operating in the European Union uses the terms “climate change” or “climate action” when they’re greenwashing, the EU will fine them. Elsewhere, their names may be missing from responsible travel lists here and here or they may be called out.
On the other hand, companies that operate transparently will spell out how climate language is replacing how we used to talk about change in day-to-day weather, but not always.
I say this notwithstanding that Florida officials are not allowed to talk about climate change, so that on the dark side of the Visit Florida public/private tourism marketing organization, discussion of how bed taxes might improve Florida’s environment refer only to renourishing eroded beaches. Which brings up an essay this June in The Atlantic by Anne Applebaum about propaganda
that China “can eliminate not just the words democracy and Tiananmen from the internet, but the thinking that leads people [everywhere] to become democracy advocates or attend public protests in real life.”
Tourism by axiom and by democratic alternatives
It’s no longer axiomatic that if a remote beach town wants flush toilets that mega-hotels have to plumb the way, although that’s still the theory behind the recent billion-dollar Mexican investments in new airports, the Tren Maya, and expressways meant to relieve the pressure of mass tourism on Cancun and Tulum. This still means opening up Mexico’s interior and those Pacific beach towns once protected by neglect, suddenly crossed by executive orders that waive the protections of adequate environmental review.
Or if you don’t want development by walled-off hotels that the only other choice is factories, like in Mexico along the U.S. border, where women especially are exploited at maquiladoras, where drug cartels offer “protection,” and with corrupt officials that cut lives short by violence. Will new president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, a former climate scientist, make a difference? The Guardian is skeptical.
When a consortium of U.S. travel advisors named The Travel Corporation (TTC) refers to climate change, the co-founder of the D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Responsible Travel says, “This really should be showcased much more than it oftentimes is.”
Says Martha Honey, “We need to be pushing much harder to make sure that not only the consumer, but perhaps even more importantly, the middlemen — the tour operators, the media outlets — know where to look for sustainable companies. I think some operators are starting to highlight this, because they’re realizing it’s a good selling point to be promoting the responsible activities companies are involved in.”
Research indicates that Gen Z will shun brands that don’t share their values, with 68% wanting to buy from companies that support a primary social cause. However, lip service won’t do. Brands must live by how they hold themselves out.
Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer and head of TreadRight, The Travel Corporation’s non-profit foundation, says that values have to reach deep and avoid mere add-on, “because that’s what travelers want.
“[W]e produce reports to make sure the travel agent community can understand we’re not greenwashing. Our goals address the travel experience, diversity, inclusion, waste, sustainable procurement, making sure we’re not just using too much of the world’s resources, and climate change.”
“Tourism has to work for visitors and locals alike.”
So says Megan Epler Wood, managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University and initiator of The Ecotourism Society (now The International Ecotourism Society, or TIES). It was 1990 at a soil conservation conference in Miami Beach when Megan introduced ecotourism to the world. I was there and briefly became the society’s first newsletter editor.
“All tourism is dependent on beautiful natural and cultural resources. You have to protect those resources in order to be a viable tourism destination — and if you don’t, they degrade,” Megan says.
This scares people invested in local tourism businesses when destinations impose fees and carrying counts for visiting public spaces that might discourage customers they depend on. But destinations need to find ways to counteract what Megan calls “the invisible burden” of tourism, which includes strains on a community’s infrastructure, utilities and housing stock, as well as tourists’ carbon footprint and any challenges they might impose on residents’ daily lives.
“You put so much pressure on the place that the people who live there become unhappy, and then they don’t present a very good face to tourists,” Megan says. “The longer you wait, the higher the cost to fix it.”
Here is a look at new measures that travelers can expect this summer, and where others might be coming in the future.
New visitor fees
Since February, visitors to Bali have been asked to pay a levy of 150,000 Indonesian rupiahs, or about $9.40 per visit. Revenue will be used to support the preservation of cultural and natural assets on the island, where tourism has compounded problems with litter, water supply and overcrowding. Visitors are encouraged to pay the new fee online before their departure, although they can also pay on arrival.
Starting in August, most non-Ecuadoreans to the Galápagos Islands must pay a $200 entry fee, double the current amount. Funds will benefit conservation, infrastructure and community programs.
The change is the first increase to the entry fee since it was introduced in 1998, says Tom O’Hara, communications manager for the Galápagos Conservation Trust. The increase comes a year after the UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged the government of Ecuador to work toward a “zero-growth model” for tourism in the Galápagos. That’s also a year after a record-breaking 330,000 visitors disturbed the islands’ wildlife.
“It’s quite a complicated topic,” Mr. O’Hara says, noting that the fee increase has been viewed “as part of the solution to overtourism.” On the other hand, he added, “everyone is trying to reassure the local tourist industry that this isn’t going to kill tourism on the islands.
Higher hotel taxes in Amsterdam and Paris. Tightened rules on public drinking in Milan and Majorca. “Ahead of the summer travel season, leaders in many tourist spots have adopted measures to tame the tourist crowds — or at least earn more revenue from them.”
