In the background of the opening of COP26, it is with great humility and conviction I write to you today to sound the alarm with reference to our Continent Africa, the need for concrete action, collaborative and complementary response to that make a difference in the global climate change crisis. ATC is committed and is at the front lines of ensuring a more sustainable tomorrow for industry and humanity at large.
Sustainable Development Agenda:
The whole world is seized with one of the biggest crises of our generation “Climate Change”. What is now clear to the vast majority across the world, is the vulnerability of our planet. The possibility of extinction of humans and many other species is no longer a far-fetched idea. The current signs are more clear than ever, that if this generation does not take immediate measures to arrest and to begin to reverse the damages of the first, second and third industrial revolutions; the damage is on the brink of becoming irreversible, sending this planet on an unstoppable self-destruct spin.
The ongoing COP 26 Convention in Glasgow, Scotland has to not only agree on the now or never measures but to turn the talk show into a meeting of global leadership and action.
The interventions that must be implemented can no longer be a privilege of a few so-called big powers. Climate Change and its devastating symptoms and impacts, like global warming, which comes with ever-increasing numbers and scale of natural disasters, knows no boundaries.
The situation demands that all nations, big and small be involved. But this is only possible if the widening socio-economic disparities are addressed and the developing world assisted in implementing the agreed interventions. This world can no longer afford the runaway economic growth and development of certain regions which leaves the rest of the world behind. It is not sustainable.
COVID-19
Similarly and by all standards, COVID-19, was and is an ongoing natural disaster that has hit at a global scale and with devastating effects, it is a pandemic that knows no geographic, demographic, or socioeconomic boundaries. It can only be stopped on its tracks by an all-inclusive global effort. COVID-19 must be acknowledged and addressed as the immediate major threat to the Sustainable Development Agenda.
The inward-looking if not selfish approach in dealing with the double-edged menace of climate change, natural disasters and pandemics like COVID-19 can only be stop-gap, unsustainable and extremely expensive economically and with respect to human lives.
Applied to our continent, the tourism industry recovery is increasingly becoming like the game of a sharpshooter chasing a rapidly moving target. The worst of our fears as African tourism stakeholders is slowly manifesting into reality. The threat posed by COVID-19 seems to not be going away anytime soon and is increasingly becoming a medium to long-term public health challenge that may choke the recovery process and suffocate sustainable growth and development in the medium to long term.
Currently, the UK is experiencing what might be a fourth COVID-19 wave. Fears are that such an outbreak during the winter, which is just starting might lead to another shutdown. The UK is a major source market for many African countries. If the whole of Europe was to be affected by the “fourth wave” and such a wave spreads to cover the continent, then all hope of recovery and renewed growth may be shattered consequently having a negative impact on the recovery of the national economies on the continent.
A Case for the Travel and Tourism Industry
Travel and Tourism is a global industry that has been playing a significant role in spreading the tourism dollar from the economically advanced regions to the less advanced. Tourism has proved its effectiveness in leveling up within and across national economies. The ever-growing number of international visitors, who see themselves as global citizens, demanding sustainable practices in the production, supply and consumption of tourism goods and services is a game-changer for the sector.
Solutions to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the travel and tourism sector must be at all levels, local, national and global. Any other approach is a danger to the recovery of the sector, many national economies and of course to the Sustainable Development Agenda itself.
The African Tourism Council appeals to the global leaders to take measures that ensure COVID-19 does not further entrench the economic disparities between the rich and poor countries. COP26 will not have done justice if it fails to bring to the fore of its discussions the suffocating effects of COVID-19 on the recovery of Africa and the rest of the developing world’s travel and tourism industries and resultantly their economies.
We are encouraged by the “One Planet Tourism Sustainable Tourism Program", led by the UNWTO and UN EP’s visionary declaration to be announced during this COP26, known as The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism which will galvanize a global approach to dealing with the impending catastrophe.
We at African Tourism Council believe that the top-bottom approach which has been the basis of global aid or funding has failed the world, it failed the developing world, it failed Africa. We believe a winning approach is a bottom-up approach. Local responses scale upwards to national, regional, continental to global.
We hope the world leaders will do the right thing, and that is to bail out the developing world and indeed Africa from the grip of the vicious cycle of underdevelopment, the suffocating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrelenting impacts from natural disasters.
Arresting the causal factors of climate change requires the empowerment of all stakeholders at all levels, it is no more a favour or privilege, it is a must. Such empowerment, but only if applied from the bottom and scaled up and across.
At African Tourism Council, the motto now is “Your Business, my Business, our Business”. Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the UNWTO rightly points out that "no one organization can tackle this alone." That’s why we need to work urgently together within a consistent sector-wide approach to accelerate change and therefore I encourage tourism stakeholders to subscribe to the "Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism”.
We say well done and well said to UNWTO, UNEP, the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Program and well done to COP26.
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Tags: Sustainable Tourism, African Tourism Council
