New initiative forms to foster collaboration on climate change

A new initiative set to launch in early 2023 aims to help the travel tech community take action on climate change. The Travel Foundation will introduce TravelTech4Transformation (TT4T) this week at The Phocuswright Conference in Phoenix.

Who better to tackle the challenge than travel tech innovators - “disruptors of the status quo” - who will “create the systems and solutions that will underpin new models of tourism?” says Jeremy Sampson, CEO of the Travel Foundation and chair of the Future of Tourism Coalition.

The announcement coincides with the United Nations’ annual climate change conference, COP 27 . World leaders and activists have gathered in Egypt this week to address a range of topics including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and financing climate action in developing countries.

Sampson says, “We urge governments at COP and beyond to coordinate globally and consider what is fair in terms of who pays for this huge investment, and what is equitable in terms of optimizing global travel distribution.”

The global TT4T initiative aims to engage the travel tech community in developing new solutions, which will be pilot-tested and refined through destination-level partners.

“We see huge opportunities for those who can offer new solutions that support the drive towards more resilient, future-proofed businesses and destinations,” Sampson adds.

The Travel Foundation is building on the findings of its upcoming report, “ Envisioning Tourism in 2030 ,” to be released in the new year. The research reveals that halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050 would take “a global coordinated response,” and it would require policymakers to make “trillion-dollar investments” in the greenest forms of transportation and limit most pollution.

With global tourism set to double from 2019 to 2050, “current strategies that rely solely on carbon offsetting, technological efficiencies and biofuels are woefully inadequate,” according to the fundings. “Such measures alone will fail to meet the Paris Agreement-aligned goals to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.”

The report “sets out the stark realities but also the opportunities,” Sampson says.

“We need to go from a steep increase in greenhouse gas emissions to a steep decline, and from doubling emissions by 2050 (business as usual) to net zero by 2050,” Sampson continues. “This requires nothing short of a transformation, with new systems, incentives and tourism products.

“If the will is there, I believe the complexity can be overcome, and the money can be found. Unfortunately, we are fighting against the status quo,” Sampson continues.

“However, I’m optimistic that even those who are fully ‘part of the system’ are now realizing the level of change required to operate successfully in a future where weather patterns and growth patterns are facing uncertainty. And if we build a better system, we can make that transition easier, build in more resilience and leave status quo in the dust.”

The Travel Foundation is a global nonprofit that works with governments, businesses and communities to manage tourism in a way that benefits communities and the environment. Founded in 2003, the foundation has since worked in more than 30 countries.

The report will be published by the Travel Foundation in collaboration with Centre of Expertise Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality (CELTH), Breda University of Applied Sciences, the European Tourism Futures Institute and the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, and with input from businesses, tourism destinations and other stakeholders.

The team behind the report used “systems modelling” to explore future scenarios for global travel and tourism. They found only one decarbonization scenario could match current growth forecasts.

“The scenario is achieved through trillion-dollar investments in all available decarbonization measures and by prioritizing trips which can reduce emissions most readily – for instance those by road and rail,” the study reveals. “Some limits must also be applied to aviation growth until it is fully able to decarbonize, in particular capping the longest-distance trips to 2019 levels.”

Long-distance trips comprised just 2% of all trips in 2019 but are the most polluting by far, according to the report. If left unchecked, long-distance trips will account for 41% of tourism’s total emissions (up from 19% in 2019) yet still just 4% of all trips.

“It’s clear that business as usual for tourism is neither desirable nor viable,” says Menno Stokman, director at CELTH.

“Current decarbonization strategies will reach net zero far too late,” Stokman says. “So we must reshape the system. … Huge investment will get us there within a decade for shorter-distance trips. But for long-haul we need more time, and we should take this into account as tourism plans its future.”

Susanne Etti, global environmental impact manager at adventure tour company Intrepid Travel, says the research “clearly shows the need to plan now for a resilient low-carbon tourism sector.”