The third day of World Travel Market 2018 opened on a note of optimism. “WTM is such a celebration and testimony to our worldwide tourism industry vibrancy and multiculturalism,” declared Derek Hanekom, Minister of Tourism, South Africa, in his keynote address for World Responsible Tourism Day 2018. It’s up to all of us to spread the responsible tourism message loudly clearly and far and wide.”
However, the deeper message that Hanekom then shared was not one of celebration, but of urgency. He said there were two topics that the industry most has to address – climate change and overtourism. “Without massively changed behaviour the world stands to destroy itself,” he said. “Long before then the growth in tourism stand to come to an end. We are perilously close to the point where carbon emissions will irreversibly change the symbiotic life systems that sustain life. If we don’t do this we will remain on the tragic path of being the architects of our own destruction.”