How climate change is impacting where and when tourists want to travel
How climate change is impacting where and when tourists want to travel
It’s been a very hot summer across the U.S. and around the globe. And travelers are paying attention. Tourism overall has recovered from pandemic lows, but the industry is starting to see shifts in where people are booking trips and what seasons they decide to leave home.
Weather has always had a pretty strong influence on people’s decisions about where to travel. But climate change is ramping that up.
“Concerns about heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, things like that are showing up more and more in our conversations with travelers,” said David Bratton, who runs Destination Analysts, a market research company focused on travel and tourism. “These will ultimately affect the destinations they go to, the timing of their trip, and even what they do when they’re there.”
Bratton said we’re still on the early edge of this trend, but it could deter people from going to some places and lure them to others.
“I recently saw some tourism promotion for Maine, and they were saying, ‘Hey, come here, we’re not as hot as the rest of you,'” said Brooke Hansen with the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Florida. “So we’re gonna see that shift in marketing happening as well.”
Because of rising global temperatures, Hansen said there may be growing interest in the more temperate shoulder seasons, fall and spring.
Hansen said her own state of Florida could see a net loss in tourism year round, since most of its top destinations are coastal.
“We’re already a hot state, and we’re heating up even more,” she said. “And we are very vulnerable to sea level rise.”
But, Hansen said, there is a small counter-balancing phenomenon at play.
“People also want to go see places that are extremely affected by climate change before they’re gone,” she said.
It’s called “last chance tourism.” Seeing the beaches and the glaciers, the forests, the animals, even the cities that might change or disappear.
Some people are also drawn to experience the extreme conditions of climate change for themselves. Like the Death Valley visitors who posed for selfies this summer with digital readouts at above 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Melissa Chiella is with Bindlestiff Tours, an adventure travel company that operates mostly in the western United States.
“People still want to go to Death Valley,” she said. “We have tons of bookings, because they want to almost experience that extremity.”
Chiella did say her team has had to cancel two recent tours to Death Valley when temperatures hit above 125 degrees. She also says they’ve seen more interest in their Alaska tours and more trips than usual booked for the cooler months this year.
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