The call for a reduction in air travel has intensified in recent years. This is because the sector’s environmental footprint is major: air transport represents 2.5% of CO emissions.2 (2018 data), and global tourism, 8% (2013 data). But the pandemic has pinned planes to the ground all over the planet. Never seen. Almost all flights, for months, have been canceled following the closure of international borders and the imposition of quarantines, particularly in Canada. Flat calm in town centers, in hotels, restaurants, tourist sites … […]
It will take time, several years, we are talking about 2024 or 2025, to regain the level of air traffic in 2019. However, we can wonder if COVID-19 has not sounded the death knell for mass tourism and put an end to it. expansion of the aviation sector, which seemed endless. Will this pandemic leave lasting traces and will it modify the travel choices of citizens, tourists and workers? […]
Travel allows rest, discovery, knowledge of others, the other side of the coin, but overtourism, or what we could call excessive tourism, generates all kinds of problems: long queues, crowded places, overgrown cities, heavy environmental consequences. “The current pandemic is an opportunity to realize that the traditional model is saturated,” says Michel Archambault, professor emeritus and founder of the Transat Tourism Chair at UQAM. “We feel,” he says, “the emergence of new values, the need to regain a certain serenity, to respect more the local roots of communities. ”
That said, this transformation will not be done easily, and it is quite possible that travelers will take the plane back on massive scale, once they are reassured that the pandemic is over, to visit the most beautiful places in the world. […]
The best example of tourist saturation is Venice, Italy. Normally, 30 million visitors flock there each year and all pass through St. Mark’s Square, crowded, many, very many. Thirty million people is 500 times the population of the historic center (intramural) of Venice.
This tourist contribution is an exceptional economic windfall: cruises bring in 400 million euros per year to the local economy, or nearly 600 million CAN. But there are limits. And a sign that something fundamental may be happening, huge cruise ships over 180 meters in length are no longer allowed in the St. Mark’s Basin or in the Giudecca Canal. , since 1er August 2021.
It must be said that these ships are major emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Large ships, which can accommodate 5,000 to 6,000 passengers, can consume up to 200,000 liters of fuel per day. GHG emissions are estimated at 4 to 5 tonnes per passenger, per cruise. […]
A study published in June 2018 in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change reveals that the carbon footprint of global tourism was four times faster than expected from 2009 to 2013 in the 160 countries studied by the researchers. Global tourism therefore represents 8% of GHG emissions, and this share will increase in the future. The share of air transport associated with GHG emissions linked to global tourism is 12%.
This observation on the environmental impact, the pandemic and the devastation in the tourism sector will lead to profound changes, according to Michel Archambault. “I’m not a diviner,” he says, but he believes that other ways of traveling will develop, more ecological and more sustainable, over shorter distances. But, according to the professor, mass tourism will not disappear for all that.
In addition, “the return of tourism will not take place as in the past due to several economic and climatic issues, but also because many small businesses will have already gone out of business. It is obvious that the very structure of the tourism sector will be changed ”. There will be consolidation of certain activities, and all companies will have to deal with the concept of health security. Despite the vaccination, we see that uncertainties persist and companies have no choice but to make sure their customers feel safe.
Large gatherings and major international conferences, planned years in advance, must reinvent themselves. Economically, a city like Montreal is and will be affected by this new situation. Montreal is a city of international conventions, and the entire calendar of events has been turned upside down by the pandemic. In the future, will business people still travel the world to attend conferences and conventions? For ecological reasons and to reduce costs, can’t we think that most of these meetings will henceforth be virtual? […]
It is quite possible that Niagara Falls will regain its 14 million annual visitors. There are over 30,000 people working directly and indirectly in the Niagara Falls tourism industry. But it is also quite possible that the many months of pandemic that we have experienced, a pandemic which is not yet a thing of the past, will encourage us to rethink our trips and our vacations.
Of course, many families will want to return to Florida or Cuba on spring break. And many more will want to see Paris, Venice or Niagara Falls. But others will take the train, their bike or their electric car to go to the Bas-Saint-Laurent, to follow agro-tourist routes, to go for a walk in nature, to rent a quiet chalet on the edge of a small lost lake. And perhaps also that the tourism industry, by developing an offer which will appeal more to a local clientele, will be able to reduce its dependence on foreign tourists and thus mitigate the impact of economic shocks. […]
There are more and more of us on this Earth, the world’s wealth is increasing, resources are running out, and tourism is an important part of the economy of many regions, but this tourist experience can be lived differently. Supply and demand can change. Tourism entrepreneurs as well as tourists themselves could in the future rethink their requirements, their movements and their ecological impact in favor of sustainable tourism.
The time to decide: facing the climate and social emergency
Gérald Fillion and François Delorme
Editorial, November 2021
272 pages
In bookstores on November 10
Who are the authors ?
Gérald Fillion is a journalist at Radio-Canada, host of the program Economy zone and the podcast Question of interest. He collaborates with News of Radio-Canada and 15-18 on ICI Première. Francois Delorme is a lecturer in the economics department of the University of Sherbrooke and a researcher at the Global Inequalities Laboratory. He was a senior official at the Ministry of Finance in Ottawa and Senior Economist at the OECD in Paris.