I had the pleasure of listening to Dr Rachel Dodds of Ryerson University, Canada give a presentation on the Future of Sustainable Tourism as part of Victoria University’s Tourism Future Makers or Future Takers series. Rachel is one of the leading experts on the subject and provided an insight of what is happening now and what is to come.

So, what did Rachel have to say? Overall, tourism is of benefit to society providing foreign exchange, job creation and infrastructure development. Approximately 1 in 10 jobs around the world are as a consequence of tourism and in New Zealand it is the largest provider of foreign exchange to the country – making it the most important industry.

Unfortunately tourism has a bad side, for example;

• 58% of the world’s coral reefs are at risk
• Seawater is expected to rise up to 70cm in the next ten years
• A species of animal or plant life disappears at the rate of one every three minutes
• An area of land about half the size of Paris is cleared for golf courses every year
• A typical golf course in Thailand uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers
• A medium size hotel uses the same amount of water in one day as a small village of 100 families would use in one year
• On average, passengers on a cruise ship each account for 3.5 kilograms of garbage daily – compared with 1.8 kilograms for hotel tourists
• By 2050 half the Amazon rainforests won’t be any more and neither will 90% of the coral reefs mainly as a consequence of climate change
• So, if there were 903m international arrivals in 2008, imagine the prediction of 1.9 billion by 2030 and the impact on the planet.

So, what is the future? Too find out more see the full presentation by clicking here.

For details about the future of tourism, see www.tomorrowstourist.com