DHS Y4 Soc Sem Reading Tourism

1 DUNMAN HIGH SCHOOLYear 4 English 2023Singapore Issues – Tourism SOCRATIC SEMINAR – TOURISMEssential Questions:●What should be done to address climate change due to tourism?●Tourism helps sustain economies, but it could contribute to global warming in the long run. How could a balance be reached?●How does tourism negatively affect local people's lives?●What role can government tech play in tourism?●What is the future of tourism?With reference to the attached resource material, as well as your own research, construct a reasoned response on this issue, paying particular attention to the depth, breadth and fair- mindedness of your views.You are not limited to discussing the essential questions above. You may dig deeper into the issues by asking critical questions to your fellow panelists, or lead the discussion into a specific perspective or angle.ContentsExhibit 1This is how tourism must shift to actually address climate changeExhibit 2Tourism is all-consuming: How Airbnb’s ethical rival is letting communities decide how much tourism they can takeExhibit 3The role of data and tech in transforming a destination experience Exhibit 4Wellness will be the key component of Singapore’s tourism offerings in next 5 to 10 years: STB Chief

2 Exhibit 1: This Is How Tourism Must Shift to Actually Address Climate ChangeBy Lebawit Lily Girma (November 14, 2022)A new report released during COP27 reveals that only one scenario could possibly reduce emissions in time.If you’re concerned about climate change and wondering whether you should travel to far-flung places as often as you used to before the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s a valid question. You’re not going to like the answer.An estimated 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to tourism, and that’s predicted to double by 2050, the year scientists have forecast as the tipping point for all sorts of ecological disasters. By then, our planet will have warmed 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial times. By the end of the century, the figure looks to be 2C (3.6F), with that half-degree making a huge difference. If emissions are left unchecked, this warming will accelerate, bringing forth a distinctly heightened level of cataclysmic weather patterns.So how can tourism fix its emissions problem? It just needs 100% sustainable aviation fuels by 2050 to power air travel. It can grow, mostly by increasing the share of short-haul trips over time—from 69% in 2019 to 81% by 2050—while global travelers (that’s you) rein in the number of long-distance flights you take every year … until at least 2050.Once everybody sticks to this impossible-to-imagine scenario, you can return to jetting back and forth across the globe with impunity. You could do it even more if you like.

3 Tourism as usual would double emissions from it by 2050. Source: Travel Foundation, Envision 2030 ReportThose are the unsurprising, yet troubling, findings of a report from the Travel Foundation released in alignment with COP27 in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise Leisure Tourism and Hospitality, Breda University of Applied Sciences, European Tourism Futures Institute, and Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. It was shared exclusively with Bloomberg ahead of its release on Monday.The longest-distance flights are defined as round trips of more than 9,941 miles—e.g., New York to Cairo, or London to Bangkok. They are the hardest to decarbonize, the report explains, which is why they must remain static at 2019 levels for the next 27 years in order for tourism to reach net zero. (Net zero means to curb emissions as close to zero as possible.) This is despite simultaneously increasing other modes of low-emission transport, such as electric cars, high-speed trains and hydrogen buses. “Our hope is to spark further dialogue and to help destinations and businesses recognize that the business-as-usual scenario is not all that likely in the future,” says Jeremy Sampson, chief executive officer of the Travel Foundation. He notes that the report’s scenario comes with its own pain points and is not all that realistic. The report focuses on movement from Point A to Point B and doesn’t take into account other huge sources of emissions in the travel industry, such as cruises or embodied carbon in hotel construction. How It Was CalculatedPaul Peeters, professor of sustainable tourism transport at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, performed simulations for the report using the “Global Tourism and Transport Dynamic Model” tech platform he developed in 2017, plugging in data he’s been gathering since 2005.Peeters’s model considers the overall tourism industry, including all overnight trips—defined as at least one night away from home (international or domestic) for the purpose of vacation, business or visiting friends and relatives. It addresses up to 20 distances traveled, accommodation providers and major transport modes, minus cruise ships, through 2100. Seven optional factors are thrown into the simulation: sustainable aviation fuel, electrification and energy efficiency, infrastructure improvements, taxes, offsetting, travel behavior, and travel speed.The first three (fuel, energy efficiency, infrastructure) reduced emissions the most, but even maximizing them was not sufficient to reach net zero by 2050 when accounting for the certainty that tourism will grow. Even maximizing all seven factors proved insufficient, Peeters says; hence the need to cap the growth of long-haul aviation at 2019 levels. “Technically, it can be done,” says Peeters. “The economy is growing. Your freedom to travel is basically the same, but the distances change. You should not fly six times per year from the US to Europe.”

4 Left unchecked, long-haul aviation is expected to quadruple its emissions by 2050 to reach 41% of total tourism emissions, the report shows. As it stands, long-haul flights are not yet back at 2019 levels, Peeters said in a statement.The larger takeaway of the report: It may be possible to act now, but the near-impossible extremes required to reach net zero by 2050 simply confirm that the tourism industry faces crisis. Every sector of travel would have to throw all it has behind climate action without delay to make a dent in emissions. Travelers will need to think harder and care more about how and where they travel. Like most industries, tourism remains in slow motion as it begins to tackle its negative impact on a planet whose health is vital to it.How This Affects You NowAfter 18 years of relative inertia since the tourism industry made its first climate promises, 300 initial signatories, including the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, committed to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism in 2021 to halve tourism’s emissions by 2030 and eliminate them to near zero by 2050. This is in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement among 196 countries to reduce global warming, and to which the US just recommitted.As this push accelerates, travel businesses and destinations are beginning to change how they operate. They intend to lead travelers—you—to experience places and activities differently. Major holiday and tour operator TUI, for instance, began offering new sleeper train trips as a substitute for six short-haul routes in Europe. Tour operator Sunweb, in the Netherlands, is also focused on offering overnight train trips to Belgium and the French Alps this winter and to the south of France in summer 2023. On a far more micro level, Ziptrek is the first adventure outfitter in Queenstown, New Zealand, to offer consumer-facing labeling to show customers what their emissions would be when selecting among competing zipline tours. “It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the trajectory of tourism,” says Trent Yeo, executive director at Ziptrek Ecotours. This is admirable. When it comes to climate change, we’re all in this together. But it’s minuscule in the face of the systemic changes go