Does Coronavirus have any lessons for sustainable tourism?

Is it too early to draw lessons from a pandemic that has not even reached its peak? Crisis can be polarising. People respond to disorder and fear by shifting blame onto ‘the other’, whatever or whoever that ‘other’ might be. This distracts and delays us from focussing on the issues that matter, and further entrenches whatever prejudices are already there. It means we deal with the current crisis less effectively, and it weakens our ability to prepare for future emergencies.

Seven weeks ago, I was one of the founder signatories to Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency. Three days earlier, China had reported the first death from coronavirus. By the end of January, the WHO had declared a Global Health Emergency. In the few weeks since then, countries and cities around the world have increasingly shifted into crisis mode. Declaring a Climate Emergency is not on most people’s minds today.

Quite rightly, the focus is on coronavirus. Every public bathroom has a poster stuck to the mirror telling me how to wash my hands. Governments are meeting, co-ordinating and announcing plans to mitigate the crisis and help companies and individuals adapt.

Coronavirus dominates the news, but one doesn’t have to look very far to see people making connections between the current emergency and the climate emergency.

At one end of the scale are those who use one to reject the other. One post I read this morning said: “#climateemergency #extinctionrebellion Do these jokers have any idea what a real emergency is?” At the other end are those who seem to celebrate the turmoil and the current emissions reductions caused in part by a temporary decline in air traffic and the collapse of at least one airline.

However much we need to cut emissions and redesign aviation and other energy intensive activities over the coming years, sudden collapse is never something to celebrate. For the urgent transition to a zero carbon world to stand a chance, it needs to be a ‘just transition’. We need to ensure that the shocks to the economy and society are minimised and do as much as possible to protect livelihoods, especially those of the most vulnerable.

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