Professor Peter Burns is the International Chief Technical Advisor for the 'Towards Low Carbon Tourism in Montenegro' project of the Centre for Sustainable Development, Montenegro.
2. Professor Peter Burns
Project International Chief Technical Adviser
University of Bedfordshire
Tourism and Climate Change: Global Perspectives
3. The shift from 20th to 21st century living
• The death of distance (Cairncross)
• Demographics
• Different for developed and developing worlds
• Fragmented and single family units
• Shift to urban living (2007 crossed the 50%
threshold)
• Gender equality remains unsatisfactory
• Liquid modernity (Bauman)
• Tourism mobility no longer a by product of
household surplus income
• Search for ‘authenticity, inspiration, rejuvenation’
• Emergence of the ‘sharing economy’
4. Remapping global politics and economics
• Fukuyama was wrong!
• The ‘rise of the rest’ (Zakaria’s
post-American global economy)
• Wall Street ethos of ‘Greed is
good’ was wrong and is wrong
• Globally, poor gender balance is
still inhibiting equality and growth
17. Extreme positions for tourism…
• Worst case scenario: oil prices and global
warming may produce such catastrophic
changes to society that tourism becomes
irrelevant to society
• Best case scenario: adaptation, mitigation, and
technological innovation reduce tourism’s
carbon footprint to zero
• Just a thought: Can interactive technology offer
carbon-neutral virtual tourist experiences
through shared virtual environments?
21. Tourism summary…
• The traditional climate/ weather/ tourism
relationship is no longer a stable or reliable part of
the product mix
• Changes in consumption patterns and climatic
conditions will impact on suppliers and destinations
• Climate change impacts will happen up and down
the value/ supply chains creating opportunities and
need for innovation, adaptation, and mitigation
Worldwide, 97 per cent of countries report having programmes and policies in place to address gender inequality, but with the lack of real political will, this still hasn’t levelled the playing field for women
The UN’s ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report,
Damian Carrington 18th September 2014 The Guardian
Sir John Beddington
Key questions 1. Can nine billion people be fed equitably, healthily and sustainably?
2. Can we cope with the future demands on water?
3. Can we provide enough energy to supply the growing population coming out of poverty?
4. Can we mitigate and adapt to climate change?
5. Can we do all this in the context of redressing the decline in biodiversity and preserving ecosystems?