Futures in Motion: Weekly article drop

Weekly drop

We all love to travel, see new places, experience different cultures and see the world. And it may seem many of the people around you are on constant holidays, but it’s estimated that only between 2% and 4% of the global population fly abroad annually in any given year. Travel is an immense privilege and should be treated that way. Travel is also inherently political. We don’t all have the same power with our passports and the impacts of global tourism are immense. 

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to dozens of countries around the world and have spent nearly the last decade as an American living in Latin America. It’s been a reckoning recognising the privilege that I and many Westerners have just existing abroad. 

Travel is also at the centre of a growing and necessary conversation about climate impact. Many people are genuinely grappling with whether they should travel at all. Global tourism now accounts for around 9% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions and it is growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the global economy. Yet the communities most impacted by extractive tourism rarely see the wealth the industry generates. 

There are no easy answers, but this guide is less about telling you not to travel and more about asking: if we are going to travel, how do we ensure we are causing the least harm possible? And how do we ensure that the future of travel is shaped not by the travel industry or by those with the most powerful passports, but by the communities most impacted by tourism and by climate change itself?

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