Can the tourism industry adapt to climate change? Part 1: Coastal and beach destinations

From ski slopes to beach resorts, climate change is already impacting a travel and tourism industry estimated to be worth US5.81 trillion globally in 2021. In some areas the impact is barely perceptible while in others it has forced whole resorts to adapt and some to shut up shop completely.

What follows is the first of three blogs which look at vulnerable tourist spots around the world and their strategies to adapt. Part one looks at coast and beaches.

Warmer waters

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Located off the northeast coast of Australia, this natural wonder spanning nearly 350,000 sq km, is the largest coral reef system in the world. An industry in itself, it supports 64,000 jobs and is worth €4.1 billion to the Australian economy. Yet aerial surveys suggest that as much as 60 percent of the reef’s corals are dying. This is because rising sea temperatures cause the coral to expel microscopic algae that live in their tissues. Without the algae, these tissues become transparent, exposing their white skeleton. This ‘coral bleaching’ weakens the coral making it susceptible to diseases and mass die-offs.

The most obvious strategy is to reduce greenhouse gases driving global warming, but other viable options of climate adaptation include seeding millions of juvenile corals, or heat-tolerant corals, on selected reefs to help regenerate this incredible ecosystem. While coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters, new reefs are establishing themselves further from the equator in subtropical waters.

Southern Mediterranean: The great summer get-away in July and August to the sun-kissed beaches of the Mediterranean may be curtailed due to them becoming unbearably hot. According to the 2022 IPCC report, warming across the Mediterranean will be about 20 percent higher than global averages in the decades to come. Already a progressive tropicalisation of the Mediterranean Sea, has seen an estimated 1,000 invasive species migrate to it, such as rabbit fish, now common in Turkish waters.

It is likely that tourism in the region will adapt through a longer season, with people travelling earlier or later to avoid the months when mercury could routinely reach 40⁰ C. Air conditioning, now the norm, will become a pre-requisite.

Disappearing beaches

Gambia: Coastal resorts in all countries are prized for their wide sandy beaches. Gambia is no exception, yet extensive stretches of coastline in this tiny West African country are being eroded by rising sea levels and storm surges, resulting in an ever-narrowing strip of sandy beach. Tourism in Gambia accounts for around 20 percent of its GDP. In the coming 50 years, its shorelines will retreat in many places by 25-50m and this could increase to 40-80m by 2100. This is on top of already occurring coastal erosion. Considering that most of the world’s beaches are no wider than 50-100m, Gambia isn’t alone in facing this threat. Phan Thiet, Vietnam; Key West, Florida; Seychelles; Venice, Italy; Tacloban, Philippines and many more thin-strip beaches are at risk.

Traditional methods of beach protection using hard structures, such as breakwaters and groynes, are not always effective at mitigating the effects of sea level rise. Nature-based solutions, such as the Dutch ‘Zandmotor’ or ‘sand engine’, has had good results. This innovation involves vast amounts of dredged sand pumped in to nourish the beach, with a design to achieve multiple benefits such as enhancing the beach or creating a habitat. The sand is dispersed by waves and tides along the adjacent coast, compensating erosion with protection that can last up to 20-30 years. This engineering procedure proved successful in protecting central Holland in the Netherlands, and the UK’s strategically important Bacton Gas Terminal and two nearby villages in Norfolk, England.

Sea level rise

On average, sea levels are expected to rise up to 30cm during the next 30 years, making storm surges even more of a threat to low-lying countries. Before the end of the century, some tourist destinations may vanish completely. The Maldives has an average height of just 1.3m above sea level. Shauna Aminath, its environment minister, remarked at COP27 that every single island was being eroded and that the Maldives was running out of fresh drinking water.

The dreamy palm tree fringed beaches of the Caribbean islands are also at risk. A report published as long ago as 2012, examining 906 resorts in 19 Caribbean countries, predicted that 29 percent of resort properties would be partially or fully inundated by a one metre rise in sea level with 49-60 percent resort properties at risk of beach erosion damage.

Building in resiliency

A warmer world also means more powerful hurricanes, which underline the need for Caribbean islands to have climate resilient infrastructure. Good examples are Princess Juliana International Airport on St Maarten which is designed to be hurricane and earthquake proof and the recently opened airport terminal on Sint Eustatius, which was designed to handle increased passenger traffic and to withstand a category 4 hurricane.

As ever, it’s a case of building climate resilience where it’s feasible while tackling the primary cause of climate change which is man-made.

Even in a changing world, the tourism industry will be resilient. It will adapt. Aircraft and ships will transition to zero carbon fuels and sustainability and environmental responsibility will feature even more prominently. However, for future generations, some of the beach holidays we enjoyed in our youth may not look and feel quite the same.

Read our second blog in this Climate Change and Tourism series, Rivers and Ski Resorts.

Access the third and final blog in this series, City Breaks by clicking here.