Lucy Goodchild van Hilten from AlterNet interviewed Rachel Dodds, a professor at Ryerson University in Canada and director of Sustaining Tourism, and spoke with her about the state of sustainable tourism and what travelers can do to help reduce the impact of tourism.
“LG: To set the scene, what are the main sustainability impacts of mass tourism?
RD: Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries. It keeps growing at a rate of 3 to 5 percent a year, no matter what. (The only year it didn’t grow was 2001, after 9/11.) Airlines are getting more efficient, but more people are flying; we’re still creating huge carbon emissions. Airlines and cruise ships have been immune so far from any of the carbon talks that have been going on—they keep wiggling their way out of it.
That’s a big problem, since more and more people are cruising. A passenger generates 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of garbage per day on a cruise ship. That’s more than an average American household produces in a week and three times more than a European household produces in a week.”
This is an excerpt from an interview originally published on AlterNet. To read the whole story, visit Why the Tourism Industry Is an Environmental Disaster and a Hothouse of Worker Exploitation: The Future Is Responsible Travel.
