“We have moved into a new paradigm where the only option is systems transformation. We should therefore call out the many overly optimistic strategies and plans which assume – implicitly or explicitly – that we can carry on as usual in the (blind) hope that technology and offsetting will see us through.”
This is the big take-home message from a new piece of in-depth research on where the travel industry needs to go from here – and how it can survive in a rapidly decarbonising world.
Titled Envisioning Tourism in 2030 and Beyond, the report doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the future we’re facing. “We have delayed action for too long, and as a result, our options have narrowed,” Jeremy Sampson, CEO of The Travel Foundation, writes in the foreword. “This assessment should act both as wakeup call and motivation to act.”
Produced by The Travel Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to ensuring that tourism has a positive impact on destinations, in partnership with Breda University of Applied Sciences, European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI), the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions and the University of Waterloo, the research aims to help policymakers and the tourism industry understand what a global, thriving, decarbonising tourism industry could look like by the end of this decade and beyond.
Read full original article Travel positive: Is this the sustainable tourism blueprint of the future? at independent.co.uk
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