Transition to net-zero ‘critical’ to tourism industry's survival

That was the stark warning from The Travel Foundation’s head of strategic partnerships, Graeme Jackson, who spoke during a panel discussion at Spain’s inaugural Sustainability Day on Wednesday (26 April).

He said if business "continues as usual" for the tourism sector, it will not achieve its 2050 decarbonisation target. 

"We need massive innovation, investment and policy to achieve this," he told delegates. "We are already overshooting that first deadline of 2050 and, at the moment, there is no pathway to that goal.

"We need to be thinking differently about, and adapting, what we do. We need to encourage investment in the type of infrastructure that gets people to the destinations, and around the destinations, in a sustainable way.”

Despite further investment, policy and innovation in sustainability posing a challenge, Jackson believes the industry can achieve the extra support with additional inter-sector collaboration.

"If we combine everything we have at our disposal, we don’t get close to those goals we have as a sector, which is why we need extra innovation," he warned. 

"If tourism can act as a catalyst to accelerate the use of these new technologies, we will get closer to hitting these goals."