Between October 1st and 3rd, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Swiss Government will be holding the Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Davos, Switzerland to address “the global challenge of climate change and action by the tourism sector in both adaptation of destinations and mitigation of its own impacts”. As the travel and tourism industry totaled 846 million international arrivals and 4 billion domestic trips in 2006, it is important that the people in charge are responsible and aware of the damage they are causing to the environment. Although the travel and tourism industry does contribute a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, it is also highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. These two contrasting problems are central to the issue of climate change with the carbon dioxide emissions of the travel and tourism sector accounting for between 4 and 6% of total emissions, yet “changing climate patterns might alter major tourism flows”. It is a thorny issue to tackle but at least there are people who are trying to make some change!

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