Sunday, February 14, 2016

How Climate Change Impacts Tourism Industry?



So the hole in the ozone layer is getting larger, sea levels are rising, hurricanes, heat waves and Tsunamis are frequented, glaciers are getting melted, our lovely and  kutchi world” has become warmer – and we are living in a changing climate. Well, due to the huge number of campaigns about benefits of recycling, effects of global warming we all are aware about the impacts of this climate change on our health, environment, and on all the rare species. But quite surprisingly, this changing climate also affects the world economy, somewhat indirectly. 

Due to these kind of abrupt changes, the overall weather condition is becoming harsher and as a result of that places which happened to be favorite among tourists, are visited less. Thus the tourism industry, across the globe, is getting affected due to the climate change.


Climate change impacts

Well, climate has always been an essential resource for tourism. Especially for places which are popular for their natural resources and beauty. The changing nature of weather and climate of a particular tourist destination as well as of all the tourist generating countries may considerably affect the tourists’ comfort and their decisions related to the travel. 

hillside88.com says , since tourism industry is one of the leading economical sectors in most of the parts of the world any effective changes in this will affect the entire economical condition of the particular country, especially when it is related to other sectors like handicrafts, agriculture and construction.

Moreover, in developing countries and small island states where tourism is one of the leading economic activities, any major reduction in tourist arrivals will cause lack of employment, resulting into further poverty and lesser well being of the state.

For example, increased droughts are a major result of climate change in Africa and this poses severe risks when it surpasses the expected levels, or when it strikes in areas which are not very used to coping up with such harsh situations. Since the tourism industry is largely nature based in Africa, the lack of rainfall leads to severe weather conditions.

The water bodies are getting dried up gradually and the vegetation are withering away, affecting the national parks largely, which are the chief tourist interests in Kenya. The Tourism authorities of Kenya are now really worried about the invasions of the desperate herders in these national parks which is threatening the livestock. This is a very serious issue in regard to the national economy of Africa, as a large amount of the country’s overseas trade earnings is dependent upon this.

In fact it has also been feared that the wild animals, which also includes some of the rare species of the world will die due to starvation and this, will, definitely affect the tourist arrivals in the country.
The effect of climate change is also seen in some parts of Canada. Since it is a huge land mass in the interior is expected to experience an increase in temperature and a cut in summer soil moisture.

Again, huge floods affect the communications of the tourism destination. A typical example of this is Ghana – the country whose northern part has been consistently flooded for the past two years and is on its verge to lose many of the wild animals which used to live in the northern parts of the country.  Moreover, due to the consistent floods, the transport systems are completely destroyed, making the parks inaccessible to tourists during the rains.

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