How did 2024 go for sustainable tourism? 

Here we look back at some of the highlights from 2024, revisiting some our own research and projects, as well as the key trends in sustainable tourism that caught our eye.  A huge thank you to all our many partners and friends for their vital support over the past year, enabling us to continue to advocate, create solutions and foster collaboration for a better future for tourism.  

Is tourism finally about to get real on climate action? 

Over the past year, there’s been a growing sense that climate action is increasingly important in the sector, with more tourism organisations getting on board. However, there’s still a long way to go and the task is more urgent than ever. 2024 is likely to be a record-breaking year for tourism emissions, which are growing more than two times faster than emissions from the global economy.  It was also the hottest year on record, with climate change driving increasingly extreme weather events. 

A note of hope came from the COP29 climate conference in Baku, where for the first time tourism had its own thematic day. Over 50 countries endorsed the Baku Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism, which we hope will deepen commitments by encouraging more active participation from national governments (read more here).   

Advocating for climate action remains a huge part of our work: 

• Our team spoke at over 50 events around the world in 2024, including at COP29 and at ITB, Berlin, where our CEO delivered a keynote speech.  
• We have also continued our practical support for tourism destinations, many on the front line of climate change. In the past year, this includes Honduras, Finland, Guanajuato, the Canary Islands, New Zealand and Pacific Island states.  
• A special mention goes to Preferred Travel Group, who recently announced their first Climate Action Plan; we’ve provided training and planning support for them, too. 

Highlights from our capacity-building work include creating a blueprint for climate action plans for the Mediterranean region, working with NECSTouR and CPMR, and a new ‘Destination Climate Champions’ online training course developed with Expedia Group. Both initiatives aim to give destinations climate literacy and empower them to lead positive change, enabling them to create Climate Action Plans.

Climate justice applies to tourism, too 

Our recent report, Climate Justice in Tourism: An introductory guide, revealed how the risks of climate change threaten the livelihoods and cultural and ecological assets of host communities.  The impacts from climate change are disproportionately felt by those who travel the least and cause the least emissions. Low-income countries mainly in the Global South contribute less than 1% of total emissions from tourism but suffer the most from climate change, whilst just 1% of the world’s population causes more than half the greenhouse gas emissions from aviation.  

The report highlighted that applying principles of climate justice will enable the industry to better position its investments and futureproof its products. The report calls for the tourism sector to ensure climate justice is at the heart of all tourism strategies, engage diverse voices, forge partnerships and collaborations to address climate risks and opportunities for sustainable development.  

From marketing to management 

We’ve recently seen an increasing number of destination management organisations (DMOs) recognizing that they need to shift from destination thinking with tourists at the centre, to place thinking with residents at the centre. This growing focus on stewardship includes the involvement of all types of stakeholders in tourism decisions and an approach that promotes equitable outcomes for all members of the community.   

Our recent report, Creating equitable destinations: How to manage and distribute tourism’s value to better serve communities, explores what an equitable tourism model looks like, uncovering some of the tourism’s unintended consequences that exacerbate inequalities, such as economic leakage, lack of market access for small local businesses, poorly paid jobs, and the restriction of access to public spaces for residents. The report includes over 40 mechanism that DMOs can use to solve these issues, as well as 25 case studies where tourism has significantly contributed to local entrepreneurship, improved community wellbeing, and other positive outcomes.  

We’ve also continued to work with destinations around the world to support destination stewardship planning, including in British Columbia, Canada, Devon, UK and a new partnership with Travel Nevada, USA. 

Collaboration remains the essential ingredient to improve the impact of tourism 

Collaboration is possibly the most important strategy to improve tourism’s impact on destinations. It’s an approach that we’ve followed and encouraged for a long time, and this year was no different. We’ve continued our work with the Future of Tourism Coalition and the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, both of which we helped to create, to develop resources and solutions that improve the impact of tourism. We’ve also helped with an innovative partnership between VisitScotland and global tour operator the Travel Corporation, who are working together to find out how to reduce carbon emissions in the tourism supply chain. The implications from this should be internationally relevant. 

Our focus now is to bring a coalition of organisations together to explore the implications of climate risk on winter tourism destinations, particularly focusing on winter and coastal destinations and find solutions to address risk and promote resilience. We will also look to bring tourism and aviation together to break down the barriers between the two.