The heat is on

INSIDE THE TOURISM INDUSTRY’S BATTLE WITH A RAPIDLY ESCALATING CLIMATE CRISIS.

now came really late to Colorado in 2021. As December rolled around — a time when the slopes are usually packed — skiers were left scratching their helmets at the dearth of available white stuff. Under record-high temperatures, four of Colorado’s ski resorts had to postpone their openings.

Even worse, efforts to create artificial snow were hobbled by the fact that it was still borderline warm in the mountains. From a tourism perspective, it was a disaster in the making — until snow finally arrived at the turn of the year.

But this is just the latest example of Colorado’s increasingly unusual climatic behavior, as evidenced recently by disappearing glaciers, diminishing water supplies and Boulder County’s horrific Marshall fire.

The most worrying thing? The Centennial State’s snow troubles are only, well, the tip of the iceberg.

GLOBAL CRISIS Tourism is in trouble. Across the globe, once-unthinkable events such as sprawling wildfires at Mediterranean resorts, historic floods across Europe and prolonged droughts in the U.S. have become standard fodder for news programs.

And things are likely to get worse, said Keah Schuenemann, Ph.D., professor of Meteorology at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

“There’s no doubt among the scientific community that the negative impacts of climate change will continue to ramp up as temperatures increase,” she said.

Climatologists have grown weary of reciting grim statistics. Natural disasters quadrupled between 1970 and 2016. But for tour operators, the toughest pill to swallow may be that tourism now accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2018 study in Nature Climate Change.

The culpability of tourism companies has been further highlighted during the pandemic, when a travel shutdown led to decreases in carbon emissions and stark improvements in natural habitats in popular tourist spots. Given such stark facts, how can the industry even begin to make things right? SUSTAINABLE GOALS Enter MSU Denver’s Outdoor Recreation and Adventure Tourism program. Developed to capitalize on the outdoor tourism boom — which generated 4.3 million jobs and $689 billion in economic output in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce — the program comes with an ironclad set of planet-conscious principles.

“We make sure that sustainable management and ethics are built into the foundations of all our courses,” said Lincoln Davie, Ph.D., assistant professor of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management. “Put simply, business is not relevant without a deep integration of these practices.”

And while some travel and tourism companies glibly cite their “sustainable” credentials, the MSU Denver program actively packs its metaphorical suitcase with solid, measurable actions. For example, the industry has long sought to follow the “triple bottom line” business model, striking an equal balance among economic, cultural and environmental benefits.

“Frankly, much has been written and spoken on this topic, without much action,” said Helle Sorensen, professor of Travel and Tourism Management at MSU Denver. “But our students are putting in the hard work to make such sustainable business goals a reality.”

CHANGING PROSPECTS The warming climate has been especially tough on small tourism companies. Just ask Kathrin Troxler, an MSU Denver business graduate whose company, Aspire Tours, offers custom tours across the Rocky Mountain region. Or at least, it does when it can.

“Wildfires closed Rocky Mountain National Park for a month in 2020,” Troxler said. “Then last year, we were among the top-ranked places for air pollution. Our guests would arrive anticipating amazing mountain views, and we could barely see the hill in front of us.”

Undaunted, Troxler has based her whole business approach on ethical choices. The company doesn’t allow plastic water bottles and mandates sustainable packaging and carpooling. Aspire tour guides even educate about climate change. They regularly stop at two recent disaster sites and weave them into their overall narrative.

Troxler is not alone. Others in the tourism industry have also begun to embrace change.

“Last year, we were among the top-ranked places for air pollution. Our guests would arrive anticipating amazing mountain views, and we could barely see the hill in front of us.”

— KATHRIN TROXLER, ASPIRE TOURS

MIKE RIES/ISTOCK IMAGES

Colorado ski areas are taking major steps to mitigate the impact of climate change through renewable energy and other sustainability efforts. Arapahoe Basin (pictured), for example, has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2025.

Recognizing that no individual organization can solve a systemic crisis, industry players have joined coalitions such as Protect Our Winters and the Outdoor Industry Association to lobby for decisive action.

“The outdoor industry has become a powerful force in addressing climate change,” Davie said. “By working together, they have depoliticized environmental issues and learned to speak with a common voice, which significantly broadens their reach.”

REMOTE LEARNING With the climate clock ticking, the race is on to find more meaningful solutions. The United Nations World Tourism Organization is pushing hard for a range of sustainable development goals that will help build a more resilient future. And one of the organization’s best ideas is to put local communities at the forefront.

“Megatourism operations tend to lack flexibility and don’t always channel enough benefits back to local people,” Davie said. “Placing a greater emphasis on community-driven management would ensure a more responsible pathway forward.”

Perhaps nothing better sums up the challenges — and often, hypocrisy — of modern travel than the spectacle of “last-chance tourism.”

Clearly, treading on crumbling coral reefs or stomping around dilapidated ruins is never a good idea. But Davie argues that more general growth of outdoor tourism in remote locations, which has become a real economic powerhouse in recent years, could be a good thing.

“I think that the positive experiences people increasingly enjoy in outdoor locations today will help cultivate more of a proenvironmental outlook for the years ahead,” he said.

FUTURE LESSONS If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s that no one really knows what will happen next.

“I suppose the big question for tourism, and the broader world as we know it, will be whether we can make sweeping societal changes quickly enough to prevent the worst of the environmental impacts,” Schuenemann said.

For tourism, that will mean radically changing the approach of how, when and where people travel. And sometimes, it will mean not traveling at all.

A decade ago, Schuenemann took climatology students on an Alaskan cruise. She said seeing the scale of glacial melt strongly affected them. But time and an increased understanding have changed her perspective.

“Looking back, I don’t think our journey was worth the massive environmental impact of our ship,” she said. “I wouldn’t do that again now.”