Tourism in Italy is one of the potentially most profitable economic sectors, in pre-pandemic times it accounted for more than 5 percent of the GDP and more than 6 percent of the country’s employment and, according to the assessments of the Bank of Italy, with lots of untapped potential. Sustainability is a production model, capable of satisfying the development of an activity without compromising the future availability of the resources used in it. The encounter between this economic sector and this production model is what generates the basis of the so-called sustainable tourism, a tourism that can concretely take care of the future but which in order to do so needs to know the resources of the territory in which it operates and the risks to which they are exposed.
One of the most obvious risks is that given by climate change which, worsening year after year, is drastically reducing the resources at our disposal, putting ecosystems in crisis and directly affecting people’s lives through extreme weather events such as floods, heat waves and Drought.
The most recent weather-climate data tell us that the 2022-23 winter was among the warmest ever recorded for Italy with an anomaly of 1.3 degrees and that the first two months of the year reconfirmed the trend of severe deficit in which the North-West regions pour above all with almost half of the normally expected rainfall (-40%). A situation that has penalized winter and related activities, including tourism: just think that 90% of the ski slopes have been covered with artificial snow and – according to the Legambiente census – there are 249 abandoned facilities, 138 temporarily closed, 181 those subjected to the so-called “therapeutic obstinacy”, i.e. those who survive only thanks to the strong flow of economic resources.
Scarce snow and high temperatures are not a problem that can be confined to mountain areas, because if the water stored in the snow is reduced by half, this means that there is no water supply useful for tackling the summer season even in areas of plains that depend on those water sources. It is therefore legitimate to think that a hot summer awaits us with restrictions on the use of water, factors which will once again require a strong flow of economic resources for air conditioning systems and to keep productive activities active, including tourism. A climatic extreme that conditions the territory and the productive activities both with the scarcity of rains and with the arrival of very abundant rains concentrated in a short period of time. Rainy phenomena that increasingly give rise to dangerous situations such as floods, floods, landslides and mudslides, favored by a territory with high hydrogeological instability, made fragile by years of wild overbuilding.
It is clear that it is now necessary to study solutions for adapting one’s tourist activity to an increasingly extreme climate, in order to minimize losses due to climatic and meteorological risks. It is possible to do this by inserting the meteorological and climatic conditions of the territory into the SWOT analysis (a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a project or in a company of one’s business), investing in prevention activities and warning systems together with local administrations.
A knowledge of climate projections and the effects connected to them allows real medium-long term planning, giving the possibility to answer questions such as: where to start your own business? How to protect it in advance from future risks? Let’s take the case of the coastal localities in which many of the main tourist resorts of the peninsula are present. According to ENEA projections, by 2100 the sea level rise along the Italian coasts is estimated between 0.94 and 1.035 metres, taking into consideration a precautionary model, and between 1.31 meters and 1.45 metres, following a less prudential one . Also to be taken into consideration is the effect of the “storm surge”, the tidal wave generated by storms, which in particular conditions causes an increase in sea level with respect to the coast of about 1 metre. Today, thanks to scientific projections, we already know that the total number of Italian coasts at risk of flooding is 5,686.4 sq km and which will be the most exposed areas.
As the impact of climate on tourism grows, so does the impact of tourism on climate. Globally, a 2008 research by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) estimated the greenhouse gas emissions of the tourism sector at about 5% of global emissions and estimated that 75% of all tourism emissions are related to transport. More recently, an academic research project estimated that the sector was responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2013. A 2019 report from UNWTO and the International Transport Forum (ITF), Transport-related CO2 Emissions of the Tourism Sector – Modeling Results, estimates that transport-related emissions from tourism grew by at least 60% from 2005 to 2016, at which time transport-related emissions caused 5% of global emissions. The link with the transport sector is certainly very significant, which is why in recent years – especially after the pandemic which has shown the fragility of travel – proximity tourism has been rediscovered, i.e. tourism practiced by reaching destinations a few kilometers from home, with alternative means to the major emitters, plane and ship.
However, it remains very complex to actually establish what the impact of the tourism sector is on climate-altering emissions, this is because it would be necessary to find an unequivocal answer to questions such as: Is tourism responsible for the emissions of food consumed in hotels (or are they to be attributed to agriculture, farming and fishing)? Are you responsible for the transport of this same food (or is it to be attributed to the logistics sector)? Is he responsible for the emissions of the vehicles that take the tourist from the airport to the hotel (or is he in the transport sector)?
In any case, it is clear that this is a sector that involves countless other productive activities and that inevitably has an impact both on emissions, on the consumption of resources and on local communities. It is precisely for this reason that in recent years we have begun to speak more and more about sustainable tourism. One of the most shared definitions of the concept of sustainable tourism states that the objectives of sustainable tourism consist in achieving the economic advantages of traditional tourism development, while mitigating the undesirable effects on available resources. We are not talking only about physical, historical, environmental resources but also about socio-cultural ones or about inclusion and participation of the local community.
Italy is the country with the largest number of sites recognized as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO and is characterized by one of the most significant biodiversity patrimonies in Europe both for the total number of animal and plant species and for the high rate of endemism . Tourism, if sustainable, can represent an opportunity to protect these systems and enhance them, making them a destination and an investment. As underlined in the definition of sustainable tourism objectives, the involvement of the local community must be the basis for the development of activities. This would primarily limit the movement of resources that would also come from the territory itself, thus mitigating the effects on the climate of the emissions otherwise produced by the transport of goods, and then it would create that employment useful for encouraging the start-up of new businesses with the same value system. The creation of a network between local production activities that share the value of sustainability would make it possible to offer the customer-tourist a package of products and services linked by the same culture of enhancement and promotion of the host territory. As the energy crisis of recent months has shown the whole world, it is increasingly urgent and necessary to achieve energy independence as much as possible by distancing oneself from fossil fuels. For this reason, the sector of structures and infrastructures must also be renewed with a view to being able to offer goods and services powered by clean and renewable energy sources. Redevelopment is a costly process in economic terms in the short term, but estimated as advantageous in the long term in terms of savings, reduction of emissions, growth (and renewable sources are already growing beyond all expectations, also naturally in response to the energy crisis) and independence from the geopolitical games of which the fossil market is a pawn. Also on this front, weather-climate forecast data on clean energy sources (particularly solar and wind) are particularly useful for strategic planning.
Furthermore, we must consider the great opportunity of the century that Italy has available for a great process of reform and renewal given by the funds of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). To the investment projects in the field of tourism were awarded altogether 2 billion and 400 million euros. As stated in a note from the Ministry of Tourism “Investments have the dual objective of increasing the competitive capacity of businesses and promoting a tourist offer based on environmental sustainability, innovation and digitization of services“.
The tourism sector can also act for the climate, and it is not only the data and considerations made so far that are asking for it, but also citizens, especially those between the ages of 18 and 34, with a potential for travel and tourism, therefore still very high. A very recent survey conducted by EMG Different and promoted by WWF, shows that about 6 out of 10 of the young people interviewed declare that climate change has an impact on their lives and say they are engaged in daily actions to deal with it. About 8 out of 10 young people say they are very or fairly concerned about climate change and in most cases they have an opinion clearly in favor of renewable energy sources as a response to the climate and energy crises. How are these potential tourists responding to climate change? Their reaction has two faces: the positive one of the more sustainable consumption choices (energy, transport, food, etc.) for 53% and the request for immediate measures (44%), but also the negative one of the sense of impotence (40 %) and eco-anxiety (28%). For young Italians, even companies are not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis. In fact, 61% of those interviewed believe that they are fueling the phenomenon, while only 39% think that they are really helping to find solutions by demonstrating willingness to direct consumption towards this second category.
