It is often said that farmers are on the front lines dealing with global warming, their livelihoods being extraordinarily dependent on the weather. But tour operators and resort owners are not far behind.

Imagine a ski resort whose chairlifts are in the lower reaches of mountains, without decent snow. Or a scuba club whose reefs succumbed to warmer and stormier seas. Or a golfing hotel in a district where water shortages made it impossible to keep fairways green. All are real possibilities, industry experts say, and in fact, early effects are already being felt.

And so, this month, the United Nations convened a conference, “Climate Change and Tourism,” for tour operators and officials from nearly 100 countries to discuss the impact of global warming on their livelihoods. “The tourism industry must adapt rapidly,” the final report concluded.

“The entire tourism product will be affected – every destination has a climate-related component,” Geoffrey Lipman, assistant secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organisation, said by telephone from the meeting, held in Davos, Switzerland.

National survival

In the developed world, tour operators do not generally face a crisis, though profits will depend on successful adjustment. But along the equator, keeping the tourist industry afloat is often a matter of national survival. In much of Africa for instance, tourism is the major source of income and often the only source of foreign currency.

Yet there is a heavy cost. With the industry’s reliance on cars and buses, air-conditioning and especially air travel, tourism is a major source of warming gasses. It accounts for about 5 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, the Davos conference concluded. And poor countries normally do not have the money to make any eco-friendly changes.

“It’s nice to talk about reducing air travel but many nation states depend on it,” said Lipman. “Think about what happens to New Zealand and Australia. More important, what happens to poor countries – the Maldives, Seychelles and Africa – who need it because it is the only way to get tourists in.”

Recognising that tourism and climate change are intimately intertwined, Fiji combined its Ministries of the Environment and Tourism this summer.

For some destinations, both warm and cold, climate change is already having an impact on tourism and planning. In Fiji, more frequent storms that scientists say are caused by warming are eroding mountains and driving dirt and fresh water into the sea. That threatens to erode pristine beaches, and endangers coral reefs which need considerable salt in the water.

At the Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in Canada, glaciers are receding and good snow is found higher up the mountain than 10 years ago. “We’ve been building lifts higher, in more snow-reliant zones to give us more stability,” said Arthur De Jong, the mountain planning and environment resource manager at the resort.

Short of money

But undertaking new engineering projects and computer simulations take money and expertise that are in short supply in much of the world.

“Adaptation is expensive and the finances are a big challenge for place like Kenya,” said Judith Gona, executive director of Ecotourism Kenya, which is trying to make that country’s travel industry greener.

In the short term, global warming provides opportunities too, especially in temperate zones. Warming trends have lengthened the golfing season in Antalya, Turkey, by over a month, said Ugur Budak, golf coordinator of Akkanat Holdings there.

Golfing used to begin in March. But tourists from Britain and Germany are now coming to Antalya in February.

“Winters are milder so the effect on us for now is good,” Budak said. So far there had not been problems like the water shortages experienced in other parts of the world, he said, “But we know we could be vulnerable in the future.”

At the end of the Davos conference, the UN World Tourism Organisation advised travelers to take the climate into account and “where possible to reduce their carbon footprint.” But if Europeans stop flying to Fiji or Antalya, poverty will worsen, tourism officials said.

– NYT