Sustainable Futures for Marine Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges and Opportunities Related to the Development of Marine Tourism to 2030

 

Sustainable Futures for Marine Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities

 

C. Michael Hall

 

(a) Department of Management, Marketing & Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

(b) School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, 39182 Kalmar, Sweden

(c) Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

(d) School of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

(e) University of Mauritius, Mauritius

 

Marine Tourism and Economic, Environmental and Social Well-being

 

The economic and social well-being of marine tourism is inextricably bound to the environmental well-being of the marine environment. As the IPCC (2014: 414) noted with respect to climate change: ‘Human societies depend on marine ecosystem services…’.

 

This relationship has long been recognised. In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (1997) recognised that:

 

Of all the activities that take place in coastal zones and the near-shore coastal ocean, none is increasing in both volume and diversity more than coastal tourism and recreation. Both the dynamic nature of this sector and its magnitude demand that it be actively taken into account in government plans, policies, and programs related to the coasts and ocean. Indeed, virtually all coastal and ocean issue areas affect coastal tourism and recreation either directly or indirectly. Clean water, healthy coastal habitats, and a safe, secure, and enjoyable environment are clearly fundamental to successful coastal tourism. Similarly, bountiful living marine resources (fish, shellfish, wetlands, coral reefs, etc.) are of critical importance to most recreational experiences. Security from risks associated with natural coastal hazards such as storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, and the like is a requisite for coastal tourism to be sustainable over the long term.

 

Definition

 

The concept of coastal tourism includes a range of tourism, leisure, and recreationally oriented activities that occur in the coastal zone and immediate offshore coastal waters. These include tourism-related development (accommodation, restaurants and food services, attractions, and second homes), and the infrastructure supporting coastal and marine tourism development (e.g., retail businesses, transport hubs, marinas, and activity suppliers). Also included are tourism activities such as recreational boating, coast- and marine-based ecotourism, cruises, swimming, recreational fishing, snorkeling, and diving (Hall 2014).

 

Marine tourism is closely related to the concept of coastal tourism but also includes ocean-based tourism such as deep-sea fishing and yacht cruising (Hall 2001, 2014). Orams (1999: 9) defines marine tourism as including ‘those recreational activities that involve travel away from one’s place of residence and which have as their host or focus the marine environment (where the marine environment is defined as those waters which are saline and tide-affected)’. Such a definition is significant, for as well as having a biological and recreational base it also emphasises that consideration of the elements of marine and coastal tourism must include shore-based activities, such as land-based whale watching, reef walking, cruise ship supply and yachting events, within the overall ambit of marine tourism (Hall 2001). This also highlights the intersection between marine and coastal tourism including the land elements because most of the economic value of water-based marine tourism activities are ultimately extracted on land.

 

Economic Significance and Services

 

A 2015 report, commissioned by the WWF (Hoegh-Guldberg 2015), states that the asset value of oceans is $24tn and values the annual “goods and services” it provides, such as food, at $2.5tn. In economic terms this would make the oceans the seventh largest economy in the world although the report’s authors, which include the Boston Consulting Group, argue this is an underestimate as it does not factor in things such as oil, wind power and intangibles, such as the ocean’s role in climate regulation.

 

The economic value of the oceans is largely comprised of fisheries, tourism, shipping lanes and the coastal protection provided by corals, mangroves and wetlands. These areas are also greatly interdependent. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of the global gross marine product relies on a healthy ocean (Hoegh-Guldberg 2015).

 

No exact estimates have been determined for marine tourism. Coastal tourism is recognised as one of the largest component of the global tourism industry (Hall & Page 2014). Over 60% of Europeans opt for beach holidays and beach tourism provides more than 80% of U.S. tourism receipts (UNEP 2009). Coral reefs contributed an estimated US$11.5 billion to global tourism (Burke et al. 2011). However, if estimates of tourism’s contribution to the global economy were to be applied to the WWF estimates then tourism proportionate share would be approximately $225bn worth of the value of ocean goods and services.

 

In general marine economic valuations have tended to focus on a limited number of benefits derived from marine ecosystems, primarily those that are relatively easy to measure and convey, such as recreation and tourism opportunities in protected areas, and benefits that are ascribed to easily measured market indicators. Values associated with reefs have also received far more attention than those associated with the pelagic or shelf ecosystems. The economic impacts of overfishing, for example, remain largely unexplored. Regulating and maintenance services provided by marine ecosystems have often been recognized as important, but have often not been linked to valuation (Schumann & Mahon 2015), This is a major issue for marine tourism because of the critical role of marine ecosystems as tourism resources, e.g. coral reefs, sea grass ecosystems, recreational fishing, as well as the vital role that coral, sand and mangrove ecosystems play in the protection of coastal tourism assets, such as resorts.

 

Marine Tourism and Global Environmental Change

 

Marine tourism resources exist under a range of global systemic threats to marine and ocean systems that are primarily anthropogenically driven. These include climate change; overfishing; bottom trawling; transfer of exotic species; changes in waste, nutrient and sediment inputs into coastal and marine ecosystems; and coastal urbanisation and loss of natural capital in coastal areas, especially coastal wetlands. The experiences of these threats is “uneven”, i.e. while they are global in scale their effects on tourism development and the tourist experience varies from location to location. Nevertheless, their effects are systemic in that over time they affect not only destinations but also source regions as well.

 

Climate change is one of the main concerns with respect to the future of marine tourism. The IPCC (2014) itself notes the significance of coastal areas for global tourism. Key challenges include direct impacts of extreme events on tourist infrastructure (e.g., resorts, roads), indirect impacts of extreme events (e.g., coastal erosion, coral bleaching), and short-term adverse tourist perception after the occurrence of extreme events (Scott et al. 2012). The IPCC (2014) concluded:

 

Coastal tourism continues to be highly vulnerable to weather, climate extremes, and rising sea levels with the additional sensitivity to ocean temperature and acidity for the sectors that rely on reef tourism (high confidence). Developing countries and small island states within the tropics relying on coastal tourism are most vulnerable to present and future weather and climate extremes, future sea level rise, and the added impacts of coral bleaching and ocean acidification (high confidence) (IPCC 2014: 385).

 

With respect to the relationship between climate change and the oceans the IPCC (2014) conclude:

 

Climate change alters physical, chemical, and biological properties of the ocean (very high confidence).

 

In response to further warming by 1°C or more by the mid-21st century and beyond, ocean-wide changes in ecosystem properties are projected to continue (high confidence).

 

Rising atmospheric CO₂ over the last century and into the future not only causes ocean warming but also changes carbonate chemistry in a process termed ocean acidification… Impacts of ocean acidification range from changes in organismal physiology and behavior to population dynamics (medium to high confidence) and will affect marine ecosystems for centuries if emissions continue (high confidence).

 

The combination and often amplification of global and regional climate change and local anthropogenic drivers result in enhanced vulnerability of natural and human systems (high confidence).

 

With continuing climate change, local adaptation measures (such as conservation) or a reduction in human activities (such as fishing) may not sufficiently offset global-scale effects on marine ecosystems (high confidence).

 

Geoengineering approaches involving manipulation of the ocean to ameliorate climate change (such as nutrient fertilization, binding of CO₂ by enhanced alkalinity, or direct CO₂ injection into the deep ocean) have very large environmental and associated socioeconomic consequences (high confidence).

 

Risks and Responses

 

The challenge of climate change, and other forms of global environmental change, are not just long-term risks to be managed by the marine tourism sector. In many cases they constitute a direct short-term threat to marine tourism resources and to the enabling infrastructure on which the sector depends. This therefore requires a response with respect to business, public and NGO strategies to 2030 and beyond.

 

However, the sustainability challenge to the marine tourism sector presents at least two other significant forms of risk:

 

1. Carbon constraint. The post-Paris 2015 COP governance regime will likely provide a new polycentric emissions governance regime that serve to constrain emissions. This presents a major challenge to the marine sector because current rates of growth with respect mean that absolute emissions are set to continue into the foreseeable future given that they greatly exceed improvements in per tourist efficiency. The problem may potentially become one of peak carbon rather than peak oil (Scott et al., in press).
2. Reputational risk. Related to both constraints on use of carbon as well as other aspects of environmental change is the reputational risks potentially facing the marine tourism sector by virtue of perceived poor or retrograde environmental and social practices. This is particularly acute with respect to ecotourism, the development of environmentally sensitive destinations such as the Arctic and Antarctic, and the broader positioning of marine tourism as part of the so-called “green economy”.

 

Innovation and Response in Creating Sustainable Marine Futures

 

Responses to attempts to chart a more sustainable future for marine tourism need be more than just technological in scope. Technological developments such as applications of ICT, larger cruise ships tend to be focussed on generating greater efficiencies and growth, while being economically beneficial at the level of the firm the rebound effects at destination or wider scales are typically ignored. Social innovations as well as behavioural and governance innovations tend not to receive as much attention or priority. Some of the questions that are raised include

 

• Is it possible to decarbonise the marine tourism economy? to what extent may a mix of technological, behavioural and economic measures serve to reduce emissions in real terms? Should a carbon offset fee or similar carbon tax be applied to marine tourists?

• Ecotourism was originally grounded in notions of scarcity-rent. Can limits be placed on numbers of visitors to or participants in marine tourism activities and increase yield in real terms? Does the marine tourism sector even wish to restrict growth?

• Climate change has opened up new cruise destinations in the Arctic and Antarctic. However, do national and IMO legal authorities provide sufficient environmental safeguards for cruise development.

• To what extent can the environmental and social responsibilities of marine tourism operators, and especially cruise lines, be made more transparent?

• Many responses to sustainable marine tourism are not just trans-boundary but also trans-industry or sectoral. This is a significant problem for many ‘tourism’ businesses in the marine sector although in some cases, as with respect to high latitude developments, may offer advantages.

• How can marine tourism operators assist in the creation of marine protected areas, given their capacity to generate revenue for tourism? (WWF 2008)

• Some of the most resilient marine tourism businesses are often small-scale and extremely place committed because of their ownership structure. To what extent do governance structures and state interventions assist these firms?

• To what extent is the marine tourism sector prepared for potential changes in taste and fashion

 

Hoegh-Guldberg et al. (2015) identified eight actions to secure ocean assets and restore the ocean economy. To what extent are they supported by the marine tourism sector?:

 

1. Ensure ocean recovery features strongly in the UN Post-2015 Agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

2. Take global action to avoid dangerous climate change and further damage to the ocean.

3. Conserve and effectively manage 10 per cent of representative coastal and marine areas by 2020, increasing coverage to 30 per cent by 2030.

4. Rebuild fish stocks to ecologically sustainable harvest levels.

5. Drive new global cooperation and investment for the ocean.

6. Reinvent public/private partnerships.

7. Build transparent accounting of the value of ocean assets to improve decision-making.

8. Share knowledge more effectively and drive institutional collaboration.

 

References

Burke, L.M., Reytar, K., Spalding, M. & Perry, A. (2011) Reefs at Risk Revisited. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.

Hall, C.M. (2001) Trends in coastal and marine tourism: the end of the last frontier? Ocean and Coastal Management, 44(9-10): 601-618.

Hall, C.M. (2014) Tourism Management: Marine and Coastal Recreation, 877-881 in The Encyclopedia of Natural Resources: Water, ed. Y.Q. Wang, Taylor & Francis, New York, DOI: 10.1081/E-ENRW-120047588.

Hall, C.M. & Page, S. (2014) The Geography of Tourism and Recreation, 4^th ed. Routledge, Abingdon.

Hoegh-Guldberg, O. et al. (2015) Reviving the Ocean Economy: the case for action – 2015. WWF International, Gland.

IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (1997) 1998 Year of the Ocean – Coastal Tourism and Recreation, discussion paper, http://www.yoto98.noaa.gov/yoto/meeting/tour_rec_316.html.

Orams, M. (1999) Marine Tourism, Routledge, London.

Scott, D., Gössling, S., Hall, C.M. & Peeters, P., Can tourism be part of the decarbonized global economy?: The policy costs and risks of carbon reduction strategies. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, forthcoming.

Scott, D., Hall, C.M. & Gössling, S. (2012) Tourism and Climate Change. Routledge, London.

Schumann, P. W. & Mahon, R. (2015) The valuation of marine ecosystem goods and services in the Caribbean: A literature review and framework for future valuation efforts. Ecosystem Services, 11, 56-66.

UNEP (2009) Sustainable Coastal Tourism: An Integrated Planning and Management Approach. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Paris.

WWF (2008) The Value of our Oceans: The Economic Benefits of Marine Biodiversity and Healthy Ecosystems, WWF, Frankfurt.