By Blessing Manale

This year, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UN Tourism) declared that the theme for World Tourism Day which was celebrated annually on the 27th of September will be Tourism and Peace.

The declaration could not have been more appropriate, solely because we continue to witness world nations ravaged by devasting war and conflict in developed and developing worlds alike.

Of interest to me is the link between war, climate change and tourism-

The climate is changing everywhere, but it is people living in fragile zones who bear the effects as inflicted by climate change and conflict, causing massive suffering and intensifying inequality.

Globally, we witness people living through conflict frequently and the massive environmental changes they are experiencing, with their daily lives made more difficult by the violence, but also by a changing climate and environment.

Too often, the natural environment is damaged by warfare leading to water, soil and land contamination, or release pollutants into the air with social upheaval, thus reducing people’s resilience and ability to adapt to climate change impacts like water scarcity and the reduction of the availability of arable land.

Amongst others, the climate crisis compounded by multiple wars is escalating the severity of humanitarian crises, with humanitarian organizations struggling to respond and will not be able to meet exponentially growing needs resulting from unmitigated climate change – whilst they continue to respond to children, women and the vulnerable in need of help from the daily strife and eternal scars of the world’s conflicts.

The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-Gain) Index looks at a country's vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges, set against its ability to improve resilience. Yemen, Mali, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, all of which are dealing with conflict, are among the lowest ranked.

This further demonstrates that countries enduring conflict are less able to cope with climate change, as their ability to adapt is weakened by conflict.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has been working to raise awareness on climate change issues in the tourism sector. The first international Conference on Climate Change and Tourism’ in Tunisia in 2003 that UNWTO organised resulted in the Djerba Declaration on Climate Change and Tourism, which highlighted the obligation of the tourism industry to reduce their GHG emissions and recognised the two-way relationship between tourism and climate change.

Tourism Sector Tourism has become a significant contributor to the South African economy and impacts the lives of millions of citizens in both rural and urban settings.

SA has the second-largest tourism industry in Africa and indirectly contributes up to 9.1% of employment (1.5 million jobs) and 7% of its GDP.

The South African National Climate Change Response Policy identified tourism as one of the sectors economically vulnerable to measures taken both internationally and nationally, to reduce GHG emissions.

As such, climate change adaptation and mitigation are vital to enable the entire tourism sector government, product owners, visitors, and communities to be prepared for, respond to, protect, and recover from these events.

South Africa’s National Tourism and Climate Change Action Plan highlights the urgent need to address human-induced climate change by slowing down the build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and strengthening the resilience of the natural and physical environment to the effects of climate change.

The tourism sector remains a significant contributor to the South African economy and impacts the lives of millions of citizens in both rural and urban settings.

SA has the second-largest tourism industry in Africa and indirectly contributes up to 9.1% of employment (1.5 million jobs) and 7% of its GDP.

Therefore, an immediate response within our tourism sector is required to manage the climate change risk, mitigation and adaptation considerations related to tourism an essential condition for business success.

In this regard, SA’s National Tourism and Climate Change Action Plan suggests that tourism needs to focus on the following risks and opportunities:

Potential changes in consumer preference away from long haul travel.
Emerging policy and regulatory settings in SA’s key markets that may affect demand for travel to South Africa.
Emerging policy settings in SA that may alter the current trading environment.
Emerging international agreements that may apply to international aviation and maritime emissions and climate change mitigation.
The need to better understand potential physical climate change impacts on tourism and identify adaptation measures.

We need to appreciate that even with an intergraded climate change response for our tourism sector, as a country we have over the last two decades made huge human capacity and financial investments in world-class plans, programmes, policies, strategies and guidelines to promote sustainable tourism development and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Blessing Manale, Executive: Communications and Outreach, Presidential Climate Commission

BUSINESS REPORT