3 Global Issues and Tourism

I.
Introduction
Tourism is a sector that contributes a lot to the world’ GDP. In fact, in some small
countries or islands, most of their economies depend heavily on tourism, for example, Zanzibar.
However, tourism is a sensitive sector that is easily affected by major global issues. For example,
unpredictable changes in weather pattern, economic instability, or epidemic outbreak can have
negative impacts seriously on this sector, causing a decrease in the total GDP. In this paper,
climate change, Brexit, and Zika outbreak will be discussed as the three global issues in recent
years, from 2015 to 2017, that can affect the development of tourism.
II. Climate change
The fast pace of climate change, together with its obvious impacts on natural
environment, human and economic activities have gained a lot of attentions from the global in
recent years. Changing climate is becoming obvious, causing extreme temperature, unpredictable
weather patterns, and flooding. To the tourism sector, climate is a very important asset. More
than many other sectors, tourism is exceptionally sensitive to climate change. Changing climate
and its impacts on the tourist destinations, such as beaches, forests, and mountains etc., will
significantly influence the tourists’ decisions and demand for travelling (Rogerson, 2016).
Beaches and oceans assume a critical part in facilitating transport and tourism activities. An
increase in ocean level and ocean temperatures, would alter threaten natural attractions and
destroy certain infrastructure. Additionally, higher sea-level and acidic oceans will alter the
ecosystem, change the amount of living sea creature, kill living corals, affecting coastal tourism
(Hoogendoorn and Fitchett, 2016). The rising sea level will also cause some famous destinations,
for example, Maldives, to disappear in the future. Furthermore, global warming will also cause
deforestation and threaten biodiversity. Some wildlife animals cannot adjust to rapid changes in
the climate will eventually become extinction. Not only does tourism tropical areas is threatened
by climate change, tourism in areas in colder regions is also affected significantly by global
warming. In winter sport destinations, rising temperature will shorten the winter season,
threatening the profits of some ski resorts. Moreover, it would be harder to expect the weather
pattern and the amount of snow fall, putting travelers at risk. Changing demand will eventually
affect the tourism’s profits, as well as other related sectors, such as handicrafts, cultural arts,
restaurants, etc (Hoogendoorn and Fitchett, 2016). In some islands or states, where tourism plays
an important role in contributing to national GDP, any significant decrease in vacationer entries
will have serious impacts and lead to further poverty (Rogerson, 2016).
For tourism, climate change is a critical global issue that will definitely affect the sector. At
the same time, tourism sector is also adding to the climate change, particularly through the CO2
emission from transports of tourists, especially from air transport (Rogerson, 2016). Beside from
transportation, the accommodation of visitor also accounts for the global warming through the
use of heaters, air conditionings, and the maintenance of facilities. As the tourism sector depends
a lot on high energy consumption and air transport, tourism contributes significantly to climate
change (Michailidou et al., 2016). For these stated reasons, tourism sector should not only find
ways to adapt to the effects of climate change but also control the amount of carbon emission to
the environment. In terms of adaption, the tourism sector could adjust their operating patterns
according to changes in weather patterns. In terms of reducing carbon emission, the tourism
sector could consider other means of transportation, and use more modern carbon friendly
technologies (Michailidou et al., 2016).
III. Brexit
Brexit is a term describing the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
It is a major global issue that has serious impacts on many aspects of the world’s economy.
Tourism industry is also affected by this global issue. Tourism is one of the fastest growing
industry in UK that contributes to 10% of jobs in this country, and is expected to face a long-
term damage after Brexit (Colson, 2017). After the announcement of Brexit in 2016, the value of
sterling fell dramatically, approximately by 20%. Theoretically, this drop in sterling’s value
should encourage inbound travel. However, little evidence about a boost of inbound travel was
shown. This can be explained by the fact that more than half of inbound visitors in UK are from
EU countries. The strong tourism flows between UK and EU countries was facilitated by the free
movement of goods, service, trade, and people across EU. Brexit could create more barriers, and
procedures, roaming fees, less passenger rights for visitors when entering UK compared to prior
Brexit. Prior Brexit, the free movement of people between countries in EU has increased the
travel frequency. After the withdrawal of British from EU, air fares are likely to be increased.
Moreover, the numbers of airline routes between UK and EU countries have also been reduced,
causing a huge damage to inbound visitors from EU countries to UK. In other words, although
the depreciation of sterling may attract more inbound visitors to UK, more procedures and
barriers will discourage inbound visitors from EU countries to UK. In addition, because of the
uncertainties caused by Brexit, many decisions to travel to UK could also be postponed. In terms
of outbound tourism, it is expected that the numbers of outbound visitor will fall after Brexit.
The depreciation of sterling also causes a decrease in consumer spending and investment. In
other words, foreign currencies are becoming more expensive in sterling. Therefore, UK
consumers would face increased costs when traveling abroad, and additional health care costs.
Given higher inflation and weaker consumer spending, UK outbound travel and tourism
spending will slow down considerably. It is expected that tourism industry will face €100 million
this year because of the weakened spending power of British caused by Brexit (The Irish Times,
2017).
IV. Zika Outbreak

Zika virus is a virus transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected
mosquito. The effects of Zika virus infection during pregnancy is extremely dangerous. It can
cause microcephaly, a birth defect causing babies to have a smaller head than normal, resulting
in improper development of brain. The outbreak of Zika virus in the end of 2015 has affected
significantly to the tourism industry. Specifically, since the beginning of 2016, pregnant women
were warned not to travel to some certain Latin American and Caribbean countries because of
the risk of Zika virus infection. Until March 2017, more than five thousand case of Zika
infection have been reported in the United State. People are warned to take extra precaution
when visiting Miami, Texas, and South America by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (HuffPost, 2017). Furthermore, people who have traveled to the mentioned area
should wait for at least 8 weeks before trying to get pregnant, although they was not infected by
Zika virus during their travel. Not only has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
given their warning, travel agencies also advise pregnant women to postpone all of their
nonessential trip to these mentioned destinations. The tourism sector in Florida has also taken
action, such as providing free mosquito spraying to travelers, and giving information on how to
avoid mosquito bites (NPR.org, 2017). It is obviously that there is a negative correlation between
epidemic outbreaks and tourism movements. As reported, there was a decrease in the numbers of
bookings from November 2016 to April 2017 to Miami by 29.1%, to Tampa by 32.8%, and to
Southwest Florida by 21.2%, etc (Travelmarketreport.com, 2017). Most of the decline was
caused by cancellation made by young couples, young families, and people of childbearing age.
Even though some resorts have offered steep discounts, the situation hasn’t got better. However,
there is also a shift in tourism destinations. In destinations that are not affected by Zika virus, the
numbers of bookings have shown an increase. For example, Daytona Beach and Tallahassee are
benefiting from this epidemic outbreak (Travelmarketreport.com, 2017). In other words, Zika
epidemic has affected negatively to tourism in infected areas. Nevertheless, in non-infected
areas, the numbers of tourism bookings have increased due to a shift in tourism destinations. In
addition, from the Zika outbreak, it is important that tourism sector and public health sector
should be firmly intertwined to help prevent the spread of epidemic and reduce its impacts.
V. Conclusion
In short, tourism is an essential sector that accounts for a large proportion of GDP
contribution to the world economy. However, tourism sector is also very sensible to global
issues. As discussed earlier, the tree main recent global issues that affect the development of
tourism are the climate change, Brexit, and Zika outbreak. In terms of climate change, global
warming has a huge impact on the tourism sector, and tourism sector also contributes to the
increase of CO2 emission and global warming. For that reason, tourism sector should not only
adjust their operation according to the changing pattern of weather, but also find ways to reduce,
and control the amount of carbon emission. In terms of Brexit, it is a major global issue that
cause Sterling to depreciate, and weaken the spending power of British. Because of Brexit, the
tourism sector is expected to face a huge loss in long-term. In terms of Zika virus, the epidemic
has negative effects on countries that are infected by this virus, and positive effects on countries
that are not infected by this virus. In addition, tourism sector and public health sectors need to
intertwine to better control the outbreak of epidemic.
References
Colson, T. (2017). Brexit is set to damage Britain's tourism industry. [online] Business Insider.
Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/wef-tourism-competitiveness-report-brexit-
impact-on-uk-tourism-2017-4 [Accessed 25 Nov. 2017].
Hoogendoorn, G. and Fitchett, J.M. (2016). Tourism and climate change: a review of threats and
adaptation strategies for Africa. Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1-18.
HuffPost (2017). Zika And The City: How Epidemics Impact Tourism, Sports And Community.
[online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/zika-and-the-city-how-
epidemics-impact-tourism-sports_us_58c1ddebe4b0c3276fb78302 [Accessed 25 Nov.
2017].
Michailidou, A.V., Vlachokostas, C. and Moussiopoulos, Ν. (2016). Interactions between
climate change and the tourism sector: Multiple-criteria decision analysis to assess
mitigation and adaptation options in tourism areas. Tourism Management, 55, pp.1-12.
NPR.org. (2017). New Zika Outbreak Hits Popular Tourist Destination Of Miami Beach.
[online] Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2016/08/19/490633779/new-zika-outbreak-hits-popular-tourist-destination-of-
miami-beach [Accessed 25 Nov. 2017].
Rogerson, C.M. (2016). Climate change, tourism and local economic development in South
Africa. Local Economy, 31(1-2), pp.322-331.The Irish Times. (2017). Brexit effect to
cost tourism €100m this year. [online] Available at:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/brexit-effect-to-cost-tourism-
100m-this-year-1.3137899 [Accessed 25 Nov. 2017].
Travelmarketreport.com. (2017). Zika Fears Continue To Impact Tourism. [online] Available at:
http://www.travelmarketreport.com/articles/Zika-Fears-Continue-To-Impact-Tourism
[Accessed 25 Nov. 2017].

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IV. Zika Outbreak

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