Essay on Tourism and Climate Change

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Tourism is an industry that is hugely affected by changes in global climate, the impact is two way though, tourist travel decisions affect global climate and so does climatic changes affect tourism activities. More often than not. Favorable climates are the key attractions to tourists; this is especially evident in beach destinations which so far are the most dominating form of tourist attraction. Mountain tourism and sports are just other forms of tourist attractions that rely on favorable climatic and weather conditions to a great extent; this is because most of these are outdoor activities. Climate information is of fundamental importance in planning these tourism Programmes and activities; overall, climate has a huge impact on tourism reserves such as freshwater supply and favorable temperatures (Zerubavel, 1997, pp 37-40).

Unfavorable climatic conditions can adversely affect the tourism sector yet despite that fact; hosting countries largely depend on this sector as an income earner. Explicitly, changing in weather patterns and variations in the climate lead to uncertainty in these programs and as a result, this affects the tourists comfort, their decisions and by extension the tourism flow. In some other way, due to climatic change, the natural environment is altered a factor that leads to interference with tourism attractions as well as interfering with their reserves (Roberts, 2001, pp 12-14).

On the other stride, transport that is part and parcel of the tourism industry is a major contributor to air pollution and in the long run, global warming. Apart from road transport, there is rail and air transport that are major contributors in the inter-regional as well as domestic tourism and in the long run, this leads to accumulation of green house gases (Watson, 1998, pp 24-26). Climatic changes insofar as can be unfavorable, in some cases, this can be used to regulate the demand and supply of tourists and as a result, patterns can be restructured. Hot temperatures can be favorable for tourist along the beaches, on another stride; this can demotivate their traveling, this can also divert their attention to more in-land areas and regions with high altitudes and cooler temperatures (Read, 1994, pp 10-12).

Major barriers towards a responsible consumption of tourism

Exploration of economic benefits at the expense of environmental conservation is one of the major barriers to responsible consumption of tourism. More often than not in the tourism sector, the authorities may focus on gains and pay less attention to suitable policies that help conserve the environment. Environmental conservation is a key issue in the tourism industry since it correlates to climatic patterns; this in turn affects tourism decisions and activities. This whole issue is tied to decision making in the very tourism sector, poor decisions lead to unfavorable policies which affect the proper operations of the key organs in the industry (Pettit, 2004, pp 102-106).

Lack of relevant information and Knowledge communication of climate expertise to tourism actors is yet another barrier to responsible consumption of tourism. The Tourism industry is one
of the industries that need to be managed by people with sound expertise in environmental as well as climatic issues. Lacks of expertise, knowledge, communication or relevant information are factors that will lead to poor management of tourism capacities hence putting pressure on the environmental resources. Lack of cooperation between science, business and policy for developing
sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies are also responsible for inappropriate consumption of tourism, this is where expertise come in handy. When environmental conflict is not taken care of by the various players in the tourism industry and when the marketing strategies are not well designed, these become barriers to responsible consumption of tourism (Opotow & Weiss, 2000, pp 475-490).