Online seminar: "Climate Crisis, man-made Disasters and the Future of Tourism"

December 4th, Transforming Tourism Initiative, an international network of NGOs, tourism professionals and academia that demands a transformation of tourism, organizes its third webinar, with the interventions of Stefan Gössling (Sweden), Jesu Rathinam (India), Alejandro Palafox (Mexico) and Pankaj Sekhsaria (India).

Photography by: Chris Yakimov, under creative commons license.

As a result of global warming and climate change, the frequency of man-made disasters and catastrophes has and will continue to increase significantly. Tourism is on one hand a significant contributor to climate change and so man-made disasters and on the other hand it is a victim of them, as they significantly affect economic activity. Unsustainable tourism development itself increases the vulnerabilities to disasters of communities in and around tourism destinations.

The COVID-crises have resulted in an incomparable downturn in tourism. In many countries, tourism and related infrastructure development are being prioritised in post-Covid recovery and rehabilitation programmes under the myth of their trickle-down effects.

This online seminar aims to help analyse and discuss the following issues:

How could the climate crisis affect tourism in the future? What would tourism development that incorporates the effects of more frequent disasters look like?
How does the vulnerability of communities and marginalised groups interact with different crises, such as climate change and Covid? What social effects do disasters have on vulnerable groups and what must be done to reduce their vulnerability?
How are and how should recovery programmes be designed to make destinations and communities better prepared for future man-made disasters? What can we already learn from previous catastrophes to inform future disaster-preparedness?

We also want to deepen our collective discussion on what reactions and strategies could or should be proposed by organisations linked to the Transforming Tourism Initiative.

What:

In this 90 minute online-seminar scientists and activists will present knowledge on climate change and tourism and share experiences from previous recovery programmes. While global in scope, this online-seminar will enable learning and exchanges beyond borders. After the 90 minutes seminar, we will invite interested participants to working groups in order to deepen the exchange.

When:

Friday, December 4th 2020, 3.00 – 4.30 pm CET + 30 minutes working groups (Cozumel: 9.00 – 10.30 am; New Delhi: 7.30 – 9.00 pm)

Where:

Zoom Meeting 999 0881 0200. Registration here.

Speakers:

Stefan Gössling - Linnaeus University, Sweden

Jesu Rathinam –Director of SNEHA and convenor of Coastal Action Network, India

Alejandro Palafox –University of Quintana Roo, Mexico

Pankaj Sekhsaria – Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Ernest Cañada – Alba Sud, Spain (welcome remarks)

Antje Monshausen – Tourism Watch at Bread for the World, Germany (moderator)

Language:

Languages of the webinar are English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.

The Transforming Tourism Initiative (TTI) is an open global network of NGOs, tourism practitioners and academia that demands a transformation of tourism in line with the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Alba Sud is member of TTI. Please also see our last webinars here.