Impact of Climate Change on Tourism Industry

This paper discusses the reasons why climate change affects tourism and the impacts it has on the tourism industry. The paper will as well discuss the causes and solutions of the climate change to tourism.

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Introduction
Climate change is one of the tourism issues that have affected tourists across the world.
Climate change is the phenomenon that is associated with change of weather patterns over a
given period. The increase in global average temperatures is one factor, which has been noted
worldwide over many decades. This has affected tourism in various destinations due to extreme
heats. The change in global temperatures leads to changes where the rains or the snow falls on
earth. Climate change has resulted to effects on the environment, which are observable over
time. The climate change not only affects human but also animals and plants that are great
attraction sites for tourists (Cook, Nuccitelli, Green, 2013, p. 40). The change has resulted to
social and economic effects in various ways due to either negative impact on tourism. The
increase in temperatures over time has been described, as global warming that has been a great
concern across the world. Different nations are trying to stop climate change through putting up
some measures such as reducing fuels that contain lead and other products, which when emitted
to the air cause pollution.
Different scenarios have been observed all over the world, which may be associated with
climate change and thus affecting tourism. These include prolonged draught, too much rain than
normal, disappearance of snow, changes in sea level and extreme heat waves at some places in
the world (Hulme, 2009, p. 108). When these get affected, they affect tourism highly. It will take
a combination of efforts all countries in the world to ensure in cubing climate change in order to
increase tourist attraction. This paper discusses the reasons why climate change affects tourism

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and the impacts it has on the tourism industry. The paper will as well discuss the causes and
solutions of the climate change to tourism.
Background context
Extreme heat waves are one of the most significant dangers facing tourism and other
regions in the world. The plan of the action is to prepare community against heat waves during
summer time when tourists come to a foreign country. This mostly occur when people go visiting
other countries to escape winter but only to come across heat waves in the foreign country. They
are particularly at risk to cause dangers during the summer months. Normally, extreme heat
waves are defined by high temperatures that goes up to 15 degrees or beyond the normal high
temperature for the area (Esposito & McGhee, 2012, p. 429). They last for a very long time and
they are mostly accompanied by high moisture. During such periods, temperatures rise above 50
degrees. During the hot summer days, the areas around my place could be as much as 10 degrees
hotter than its surrounding regions. The surrounding substructure mainly made up of tarmac
material and metallic traps the warmth. This is usually identified as the urban heat island effect.
This can make the area unbearable to live in and tourists would not visit such areas. Human
activities on the environment
Different human activities on the environment have led to climate change such as burning
fuels that contain properties such as lead and nitrous oxide. Due to a lot of visit by tourists, they
increase uses of vehicles that cause pollution. These substances are known to take a long time in
the atmosphere before being decomposed thus they are known to cause long term effect to the
environment. The most known and largest contributor of air pollution is the burning of the fossils
fuels that emit carbon dioxide to the environment (Roper, 2004). This has caused disappearance

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of tourists in many places across the world. A lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes
greenhouse effect, by altering the incoming sunrays and the out-going thermal radiation, which
are important in maintaining the earth energy balance. The change of energy balance leads to an
instability climate system leading to either extreme warming or cooling.
Another factor is the industrial effect, which has led to emission of gases and other
wastes to the environment. It is claimed that this issue affects 10million tourists across the world.
Since the start of the industrial era began in 1750 and since then, there has been a lot of climate
change characterised by excessive rise in average temperatures. Another major factor that leads
to climate change as a result of human activities is the cutting down of trees. Trees are very
crucial in absorbing excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere thus when they are depleted
through human activities there is increase of more carbon dioxide concentration in the
environment.
Various ways cause climate change across the world. Some of which have been discussed
below in this paper. National Weather Service (2014) confirmed that global change in climate is
believed to have occurred very slowly over long time due to some natural factors that include
strength of the sun, changes in the earth’s orbit, amount of the greenhouse gases in the air,
carbon dioxide quantity in the seas, vegetation coverage on the land and many more. Just to
discuss a few of them. The sun may be excessively hot than normal, which would cause global
warming. The energy of the sun is not always constant since it keeps varying over time thus it
would have effect on the climate. The earth orbits around the sun and at some points the earth
may get closer to the sun leading to warming of the earth by the sun rays (Davidson & Janssens,
2006, p. 440). The atmosphere contains different gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapour and
methane. When these gases increase, they trap more solar radiation making climate warmer.

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When carbon dioxide increases in the seas and oceans, it means that the heat from the
atmosphere will no longer be absorbed in the seas and oceans leading to more heat in the
environment. This would make such areas unbearable and tourists would visit at all. This would
affect food security and also affect the economy of a country. Many countries do well when there
are many tourists that bring with them foreign exchange.
Due to changing patterns of the weather, farmers are not able to predict the appropriate
time to plant their crops. At times, the crops are being destroyed by much rain that occurs
because of climate change. Some prolonged draughts are also a big threat to the food security
across the world. Some plants are tourists attraction sites in various parts of the world. When
they are affected by climate change, either by drought or excess rains (Mutana, 2017) Crops that
are very crucial by human are no longer growing in areas experiencing draught as a result of
climate change. Low rainfall being experienced in areas where rains were moderate would
reduce crop production. These effects have been evident across the world where certain yields
have gone down due to reduced rainfall. This continues to affect tourism thus affecting the
economy of a country.
Due to changes of climate change, there has been a lot of migration of people and
animals from the adversely affected areas to those areas that seems better. As a result, it creates
more conflict in places where these animals and human relocate (Bigano, 2017). This can lead to
struggling of the few resources in such areas leading to deficiencies of water, food and other
necessities. As a result it can lead to future clashes amongst people and animal-human conflicts
leading (Bigano, 2016). Such conflicts may cause the government unable to help curb climate
change since it would be involved first in bringing peace in such areas. Due to rising
temperatures, it becomes the best bleeding point for mosquitoes that transmit malaria. Malaria is

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a killer disease affecting millions across the world and would be a threat to human security.
Tourists would never visit an area that is known for malaria disease (Smol & Douglas, 2007, p.
470). Most tourists want areas free from any kind of illness. Flooding and shortage of foods in
various areas also affects the human and animal security. Climate change is a global problem
therefore, countries should take caution on this issue in order to protect tourism. International
agencies such as United Nations ought to ensure every country adheres to rules put to curb
environmental pollution (Hoogendoorn and Fitchett, 2018, p. 45).
A statement of need
The primary focus of the tourism action plan is to ensure that there is preparedness in
case there is emergency. Both primary and secondary locations have to been established. What
are the preparations before the extreme heat waves to tourists visiting a place?
Communication should be involved in passing the message on preparations needed before the
extreme heat waves. Well-structured routes or roads are needed to ensure there is good access to
every member of the community during rapid emergencies. These infrastructures should be
improved so that people get reached to when rapid responses are needed (Michailidou,
Vlachokostas and Moussiopoulos, 2016, p.56).
It is important that one should protect their homes from extreme heat by:
 Installing high-performance windows and sunshades in the house
 Checking the situation of the air conditioning and aeration structures in the house
 Insulating homes with the appropriate gadgets

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 Always important to plan ahead to make sure homes and workplaces are ready for a
probable loss of electricity. Have alternative provisions of power on hand, in case there is
such an outage. If one loses power, inform the service source instantaneously so that the
right step is taken.
 Distinguish the Symptoms of heat-related disorders just in case someone gets ill
 Heat disorder is severe. Persistent contact to the warmth could be risky and possibly
deadly. It is good to dial 911 whenever anyone experience symptoms of heat disorder,
comprising nausea, light headedness, headache, vomiting and muscle cramps.
It is important to do the following in case of heat waves
The following resources are supposed to be put in place for earlier responses to such
emergencies:
 Manpower
 Food and Water
 Medical Supplies and Resources
 Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
 Electricity and Fuel
 Transportation
 Resources for Displaced Persons (evacuation and shelters)
 Emergency Facilities (emergency operations center)
 Local Resources

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Stay conversant and connected to what is happening around and paying attention to the
meteorological conditions and broadcasts from officials in the country. This attributed to the fact
that the disaster management department is supposed to send crisis warnings and updates to the
people via different media channels. It is always crucial to check on the fellow citizen during
these periods, particularly the elders, young teenagers and persons with debilities (Hall, Amelung
& Cohen, 2015). Various elderly people when left alone may undergo some unnecessarily
problems of the heat waves since they are secluded from their supporters and households. Elders
and others who might be delicate to extreme heat waves ought to connect with families, fellow
citizen, or kinsfolks at least twice a day during a heat wave period. Ensure that one protects his
or her wellbeing and if probable, keep out of the sun. If one has to be in the sun, it is important to
put on sunglasses and a cap to shield the head and face (Scott, Hall and Gössling, 2016).
Make use of an air conditioner whenever the heat is too much and ensure to retain the
temporary housing well ventilated with fans and open windows. Always think through going to a
well-ventilated store, community swimming pool, shopping malls, film auditorium, or cooling
center. Support cohorts who control each places hours of action and level of approachability
manage these services during such rapid periods. Look for cooling center with fans that work
best during the night, when they could bring in cooler air from the exterior. Put on insubstantial,
light-colored, free attire, which shields as much of the skin as probable (León and Araña, 2016).
Additionally, take in liquids mainly water even though one does not feel yearning to take.
Although it would be important for individuals with other problems like heart problems, kidney
failure or liver illness, or on liquid controlled nourishments to check with their physicians before
increasing liquid consumption. In addition, avoid leaving kids, animals, or those who need
extraordinary maintenance in a parked car during such periods of extreme heat waves. Besides,

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minimize vigorous movement, particularly when the sun's greatest hours, for example at 12noon
to 4pm. In cases where one needs to involve in vigorous action, it is advisable that it should be
done during the calmest time of the daylight, preferably before noon (Rosselló-Nadal, 2014).
Individuals should make sure that they take cold baths to help cool their body, but evade
dangerous heat variations, since great heat changes might make one sick, nauseous, or woozy. If
one, has problems such as asthma or other respirational complications it is important to remain in
a region where it is calm and the air is clean or well ventilated. Additionally, since power
outages are most probable to occur during the warm summertime when service use is at its
highest, it is therefore crucial to preserve as much energy as possible during periods of extreme
electrical use, for example on warm, moist days. Conserving water would be very important in
ensuring that the saved water would be used during rapid time.
Phases that one could take to avoid an outage comprise:
 Setting the air conditioner regulator, no lesser than 70 degrees.
 Make use of the air conditioner when in the house to ensure there is enough air supply.
 Ensure that those unnecessary off machines are turned off
Agencies involved in protecting the environment ought to ensure that there is no more
deforestation. They should ensure there is planting of more trees to help in curbing climate
change. More vegetation in the environment ensures that there is much absorption of carbon
dioxide thus reducing it from concentrating in the atmosphere. As a result, there would be less
heat in the environment that could result to climate change (Shakeela and Becken, 2015).
Different countries across the world are supposed to set measures that control human activities

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on the environment. These measures include, ensuring more trees are planted every year to avoid
bare land, laws to curb deforestation, licensing industries which use low carbon and ensuring that
those who disobey the laws are prosecuted.
Scope of the proposed plan
Coordination with Other Entities (profit and non-profit organizations, local and regional
memorandum of understanding agreements) these entities would help in rapid response in areas
where the government or other organization may not venture. Such organizations include, WHO
which is the world health organization that is a nongovernmental organization under United
Nation. Authority of Leadership to ensure there is proper organizations of ideas to cope up with
the crisis (Dillimono and Dickinson, 2015, p. 49). Scope of Operations organized by the relevant
channels to ensure right steps are followed to evade any calamity that may come along. Political
Disposition to bring about peace and bringing people together during such calamities. Time is
important in that it can help in ensuring proper arrangement of ideas that would help people to
avoid all calamities. Threat Level/Threat Assessment before they can take place. This would help
in being prepared to handle any problem with no complications involved (Amelung and Nicholls,
2014).
It is important to use clean energy such as wind, solar energy, tidal and waves. This
would reduce greenhouse gases effect from reaching the uppermost troposphere. There is need to
reduce burning of fossil fuels in industries and use of low carbon fuels. Another important step
that can be taken is making energy production more efficient. It would be important for people to
embrace public transport so as to ensure there is less emission of fumes. There should be
increased use of vehicles that consumes petrol and reducing those that uses diesel. This is
because petrol contains less carbon than diesel thus, it would be less pollutant. In future all

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vehicles should be replaced by electric ones to reduce air pollution completely. Tourism should
be supported by government in order to do well. Therefore the government should be in the
forefront in trying to prevent such factors that cause climate change. The government should
support local tourism by encouraging its own citizens to visit a place more and more. The
government can do this through reducing the rates at which they charge international citizens.
The local citizens should be charged lesser than the international citizens to help in encouraging
them to visit more places. By doing so, it would encourage even more people to visits those sites
and return they develop them (Wilkins, Urioste-Stone, 2017). The small fee charged would play
a big role in developing such places. The government as the highest stakeholder should provide a
conducive environment for tourists. The tourism industry should be integrated with the national
planning processes comprising the national tourism policy to come up with the challenges that
affect tourism industry. The tourism industry ought to be merged with environmental department
in order to come up with the measures to curb the problem of climate change. In return, it will
enable growth of tourism sector with a big margin.
Proposed process
The developed countries that have high number of industries should ensure they reduce
emissions of carbon to the atmosphere. The government should not be left on its own to solve the
problem of climate change alone instead; the public should be on the forefront in helping in
finding solutions to the problems. The human activities that lead to climate change should be
reduced or avoided completely. Lastly, the alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, tidal
and waves are supposed to be implemented across the world to ensure there are less emission of
carbon dioxide by other sources of energy. This would also increase the number of tourists
visisting the region to learn more. Climate change is a threat to the economy of different

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countries. The effects are mostly felt in the developing nations where agriculture and tourism is
their main source of income. The food security is not only felt by human but also by plants and
animals. Some of these animals are tourist attraction and when they are affected by the climate
change, tourism get affected too. Higher temperatures causes heat stress to plants and increase
sterility therefore lowering the general productivity. Tourists visiting certain coastal regions
cannot survive under certain temperatures, which are shown to be affected by increase in heat
waves.

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