{"id":15509,"date":"2016-11-22T11:11:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T10:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/?p=15509"},"modified":"2016-11-22T17:17:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T16:17:33","slug":"last-chance-travel-truly-sustainable-form-tourism-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/11\/last-chance-travel-truly-sustainable-form-tourism-less\/","title":{"rendered":"Does responsible tourism communications mean telling people not to come?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"crowd-1743344_640\"<\/p>\n

I<\/span>ssues around Venice and the problems of what is fast becoming known as \u2018overtourism<\/a>\u2018 are being talked about a great deal these days. What I was unaware of until reading a recent article titled \u2018How Italy stopped Venice being put on Unesco\u2019s Heritage In Danger list<\/a>\u2018, was how efforts to address the root problems are struggling to get off the ground.<\/p>\n

The article explores issues ranging from pressure to develop unsustainable projects; lack of involvement of critical voices in planning; and claims that \u201cauthorities admit they do not gather exact tourism figures\u201d. It deserves to be read in full by anyone concerned for the sustainable development of tourism. I\u2019m not going to dwell on its specifics anymore here, but rather on a trend it epitomises that any of us that share its concerns need consider.<\/p>\n

In the last weeks there have been several articles declaring that the Great Barrier Reef is dying or dead. \u201cHuman influences have resulted in a 50-per-cent decline in coral cover from 1985 to 2012, and despite recent conservation efforts, some scientists are predicting the Great Barrier Reef\u2019s extinction by the year 2050<\/a>,\u201d reported The Globe and Mail <\/em>on Monday of this week. It\u2019s only getting worse, writes Catherine Mack in responsibletravel.com: \u201cdestruction to coral has never been as speedy or hard hitting as it has been throughout 2016<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet earlier this year it was confirmed that Australian officials successfully asked authors of an international scientific report on the impacts of climate change on World Heritage Sites and tourism to remove any reference to the Great Barrier Reef<\/a>. Note that the reef is said to generate $10.93bn each year for Queensland\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

The irony is that the dying of the Great Barrier Reef is more likely to be a driver for more tourism rather than less. \u2018Overtourism\u2019 isn\u2019t the only current buzzword or phrase in the End of Times travel supplement. There\u2019s also \u2018Last Chance Tourism\u2019, which describes those tourism experiences capitalising on the lure of the rare, the endangered, the dwindling\u2026 the gone.<\/p>\n

“Without checking our own assumptions from time to time we risk over-promoting the big emotional experience that justifies privilege.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last month it was reported that Crystal Cruises is offering tourists the chance to sail the once fabled and inaccessible \u2013 and now navigable thanks to climate change \u2013 Northwest Passage. CBS reports that around 1,000 passengers have paid a minimum of $22,000 to be one of the first (and last?) to experience the journey, with the cruise selling out in 48 hours. \u201cIt would be ironic if tourism promoting a chance to see Arctic wildlife before it disappears actually hastens that disappearance<\/a>,\u201d lamented the World Wildlife Fund.<\/p>\n

All this raises some significant issues for those of us who promote more responsible forms of travel. According to recently published research by Xavier Font and Ann Hindley: \u201craising awareness may have a negative effect, by prompting tourists to consume a disappearing tourism product before it is too late<\/a>.\u201d The authors add that: \u201cWhen the tourist attraction is exhausted, tourists reach a stage of helplessness, which means that rather than lamenting on the loss, they dismiss the value of such attraction once they can no longer be enjoyed. It is a case of saying \u2018Venice used to be great before it was spoiled by too many tourists, now we shall go somewhere else.’\u201d<\/p>\n

We encourage tourism practitioners to focus on a place\u2019s authenticity. To tell stories about the remarkable connections it offers to unspoilt nature and happy locals. In so doing we imply the solution to our industry\u2019s difficulties lies in the growth of more responsible forms of tourism.<\/p>\n

Rarely, however, do we ask just how much growth in responsible tourism can the world take? There is a danger in this lack of self regulation. Without checking our own assumptions from time to time we risk over-promoting what the writer Teju Cole calls the \u201cbig emotional experience that justifies privilege<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the responsible tourism message can\u2019t simply be to do it a better way. It has to be: don\u2019t do it at all.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on the WTM London Responsible Tourism blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does promoting responsible tourism experiences overstate the idea that the solution to industry\u2019s difficulties is simply travel more responsibly?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,961,535],"tags":[1441],"yoast_head":"\nDoes responsible tourism communication mean making people travel less?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Does promoting responsible tourism experiences overstate the idea that the solution to industry\u2019s difficulties is simply travel more responsibly?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/news\/2016\/11\/last-chance-travel-truly-sustainable-form-tourism-less\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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