Can the tourism industry adapt to climate change? Part 3: City break destinations

From ski slopes to city breaks, 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.

In this third in a series of articles on climate change and tourism, we explore climate-vulnerable destinations and their strategies to adapt. Part three looks at city break destinations.

Vanishing city breaks?

Amsterdam, Venice, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, and Mumbai: just some of the low-lying cities vulnerable to sea level rise. However, cities tend to adapt quite well because these national assets can muster the finances and political will to protect themselves and their inhabitants.

When it comes to flood protection, climate resilience lessons learned in one part of the world, if appropriate, can be tailored to work in another. It is perhaps not surprising that Dutch companies featured prominently in flood defence planning in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which in 2005 inundated 80 percent of New Orleans, killing more than 1,000 people.

The aftermath of Katrina saw a complete reassessment and redesign of New Orleans’ flood defences. The authority’s initial goal was to build the previously overwhelmed levees one foot higher than a storm surge from a storm that has a one in 100-year chance of occurring. Yet by applying big data alongside hydraulic modelling and a probabilistic design methodology, it was possible to save hundreds of millions of dollars by optimising the height of the levees and in some areas design them to allow water to overflow into drainage channels. And to protect the city of New Orleans in the future, a plan is tabled to divert the Mississippi River flow to the marshlands, with diverted sediments restoring the delta to create a natural barrier.

Not a single drop to spare

At the other end of the scale, running out of drinking water is a nightmare prospect for cities and resorts. Cape Town and Bali are but two examples, where drought and demand led to crisis measures.

What’s known as a Day Zero event, when the taps run dry, actually happened in La Paz, Bolivia in 2016. The remedy was not to build more dams and reservoirs, but to improve the authority’s water monitoring capabilities. Information, derived from advanced hydrological models linked to smart software and weather forecasts, provides La Paz’s water authority with an early warning system. It is now able to anticipate problems and manage its existing water reserves more effectively, drastically reducing the chances of another Day Zero, now or in the future, even with climate change.

Cities go green

Copenhagen: Some cities are adopting a raft of eco-friendly initiatives. Denmark’s capital perhaps leads the way with more than two-thirds of its hotels eco-certified. It is a city where recycling is undertaken with a near-religious zeal, and its bike-lanes closely rivals Amsterdam for the title of Europe’s most bicycle friendly capital. Copenhagen also boasts a lot of parks and green spaces, and a 70-acre nature reserve is earmarked in the industrial North Harbour area.

Trees and plants offer a natural way to counter searing summer temperatures. Plants reflect solar radiation and tree shaded structures are cooler as they retain less heat. The perceived temperature in the shade of a tree is 3 to 19°C lower than in the sun (Kluck et al, 2020), whereas grass-covered ground can be as much as 24°C cooler than concrete pavement. Plants also extract heat from their immediate surroundings through evaporation.

London: in 2022 the UK capital launched a £3.1 million (EUR 3.5 million) tree planting scheme as part of its efforts to combat climate change. Since 2016, more than 430,000 trees have been planted across the city, including two major woodland projects, creating an additional 85 hectares of new accessible green space.

Over the next few decades, these and more innovative approaches will be needed protect some at-risk city break destinations. It is likely that most of them will be funded as the value-cost-risk equation will make sense to city burghers and national politicians.

Inevitably, those bearing the brunt of climate change will be less developed nations unless funds are put in place to help them.

The big smoke

The big irony is that the travel and tourism sector is a major emitter of greenhouse gases which drive climate change, and this won’t change any time soon. Research unveiled at COP25, in 2019, indicated that CO2 emissions from tourism were forecast to increase by 25 percent by 2030 from 2016 levels.

Until we have clean fuels to power aircraft, ships and vehicles, tourism will remain part of the problem, not the solution. There is hope on the horizon with billions being invested into cleaner aircraft. In the meantime, airlines offer offset options for carbon conscious passengers.

The unpalatable fact is that governments must accelerate actions to realign with previous climate commitments. Meanwhile, the need for climate mitigation and adaption strategies will only grow. But they must be well thought through and expert advice sought. Climate resilience strategies undoubtedly make a huge difference. They buy valuable time, but they must be done while addressing the primary cause of climate change which is man-made.

Read our first blog in this Climate Change and Tourism series, Coast and Beaches.

Access the second blog in this series, Rivers and Ski Resorts.