Leading researcher forecasts ‘beginning of the age of non-tourism’ despite industry returning to pre-pandemic highs
I
t was a prediction nobody wanted to hear. On the main stage of the world’s biggest tourism fair, Stefan Gössling, a leading researcher in sustainable transport, had just calmly announced the looming death of the holiday industry.
“We have already entered the beginning of the age of non-tourism,” said Gössling, to an uneasy audience of travel agencies, car rental companies, cruise operators and hoteliers.
That prophecy may sound fanciful to holidaymakers in Europe and North America who have been jetting off this summer – as well as to industry executives delighted to see international tourism return to pre-pandemic highs last year – but Gössling argues that as carbon pollution stokes heatwaves, fuels wildfires and ruins harvests, the cost of foreign travel will soar, and fewer people will be able to afford it.
