Can tourism ever be sustainable? • FRANCE 24 English

Can tourism ever be sustainable? • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] [Applause] Hello and welcome to People in Profit. I’m Sha Pelgra and in this episode we’re packing our suitcases and taking a round trip to the travel sector. The UN’s World Tourism Barometer from early 2025 seems to suggest that the industry has completely recovered. Last year, global tourism reached 99% of preandemic levels, but dark clouds are still hanging over the industry. When tourism professionals are asked what they’re most concerned with, the high price of accommodation and transport and other economic factors are the most frequently given answers. followed by geopolitical factors and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events. Well, as global tourism finally closes its co chapter, we’ll see whether this could be an opportunity to reshape the industry into something more sustainable and inclusive with Sha Al- Nves. She is a travel executive with decades of experience working at uh working for the UAE based Rotana Group and is also candidate for the role of UN World Tourism Organization Secretary General. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me, Charles. Um how would you describe global tourism today versus before the pandemic? Are we back to what used to be normal? Yes, we are. I think uh the markets um have have recovered big time from uh from pre-COVID. Um the the as you know tourism is a very agile industry and we need to be um uh be there to and ensure uh that the right players in the market are adapting to uh this agile industry by uh maybe providing the right solutions by catering for travelers in a in a very uh efficient manner and making sure that uh the right infrastructure is in place uh for those travelers and and the citizens of those destinations. Um, in your vision that you’ve presented in your candidacy to be the UN World Tourism Secretary General, really put a strong emphasis on, uh, sustainability, on inclusivity, on resilience. Um yet so much of the travel sector including for the Rotana Hotel Group um that you uh work for worked for caters to an extremely wealthy clientele that is responsible for an outsized proportion of carbon emissions because of air travel for instance. Is it even possible to have sustainability in such an industry? Absolutely in every way possible. Charles, I think sustainability is not just a pillar of of my platform. You know, it’s the foundation. Uh we need to move beyond sustainability and embrace regeneration. And I think it’s not enough to do no harm. We we must actively restore uh replenish and empower uh the communities as well and ecosystems that tourism touches. There’s a lot of things that we have also implemented as an organization that can be used as best practices on on a much wider scale. Let’s talk if you if you want to talk about food food waste management, you want to talk about textile recycling, you want to talk about uh uh how we can collectively as hotels or industry partners, how can we work together to reduce the carbon footprint? Uh uh there’s a lot that can be easily done. One of the things that had a a a very positive impact on on on the environment and on our operations was moving to single-use plastic and not only us but other operators have done that. So I think if we what what will allow us to make a big impact is uh connect having the right communication connectivity between uh all stakeholders in the industry and ensuring that we do things for the for a good cause and for the better betterment of of the environment and the economy. And one more thing Charles you know my candidacy is about modernization modernizing the the UN tourism to become a driver of regenerative tourism you know tourism that not only mitigates uh impact but actively creates positive outcome for people places and the planet. Um in this quest for sustainability um there’s so many different issues here. Um where do we start? Do we ask uh travelers to change their habits? Does the industry have to uh be faced with uh top- down regulations that uh that will change their behavior? How do you get for instance um to have travel that uh that doesn’t um um hurt local populations for instance by driving up uh accommodation costs? Look, I think um what drives accommodation cost is demand. But I think it takes two to tango Charles. We need the consumer and we need the right regulators to to to to be there for one another. Uh we we need to play a role by making uh the customer more aware and by allowing him to see the outcome or the positive results that come from those good practices and sustainability. If I know that I’m, you know, I’m going to save uh uh energy or I’m going to help uh reducing the carbon footprint to the world, they will be more eager and more um uh cautious to how they use things and what they do about it. So I think it’s it’s it’s um it’s interconnected somehow. We need to yes uh uh create the right regulations, create the right policies and standards, but at the same time we have to also make sure that we communicate it to the guests in a very um uh easy um very um uh friendly manner and something in a way that they will always remember. Um in my introduction I mentioned uh geopolitical factors or political factors uh affecting the tourism landscape. Um in the first half of 2025 has been marked by Trump’s aggressive diplomacy alienating longtime allies with tariffs and even threats of annexation for instance when it comes to Canada. And that’s had an impact on the United States tourism sector worth about 3% of the country’s uh GDP. Uh, we’ll have more details right now with this report by Brian Quinn. It’s the world’s top economy for travel and tourism, but for how long? The United States is set to see its international travel spending fall by 7% in 2025 as the so-called land of the free losses its shine for foreign visitors. I was here in Venice in 2020. It was a lot busier. It was the pandemic. Canadians said, “Hold on a minute.” and then they just slowed down coming. A new study by the World Travel and Tourism Council says revenues are expected to hit just 169 billion this year, down from 181 billion in 2024 and 22% lower than the prepandemic peak of more than 217 billion. The reasons for the ongoing decline are shifting. In 2024, it was a strong dollar that made exchange rates less favorable for foreign visitors. Now, it’s a feeling of being unwelcome at an increasingly hostile border amid a crackdown on immigration under the second Trump administration. This year has already seen a British visitor detained for weeks in Washington state amid a visa mixup, as well as two German tourists held for weeks under harsh conditions in an American detention center along the Mexican border before being deported. And while Trump’s global trade war has yet to result in the rising inflation it’s expected to trigger, economists and businesses say it’s only a matter of time. It’s going to be very expensive for everything for both US consumers, uh, US travelers domestically as well as international travelers because everything is going to go up. Travel from Canada and Mexico, typically the largest sources of inbound visitors, has fallen by 20% this year amid Trump’s tariffs, insults, and threats to turn Canada into America’s 51st state. 90% of the US’s nearly $2.4 trillion tourism sector comes from domestic travelers, but foreign tourists spend roughly eight times more on average per trip. Out of 184 countries included in the latest study, the US is the only one to see a net decline in visitor spending. She elves, when you when you see what’s happening to the US as a travel destination because of Trump’s policies, what lessons are we learning from this? Charles, regardless of political shifts, I think what we are seeing globally is that tourism remains a powerful connector, a bridge between cultures, economies and people. You know, it’s less about who is in the office. To me, I think we need to be more about how countries position themselves to adapt to changing market dynamics. Uh that’s number one you know and uh also I think in times of political change I think what matters most for tourism is stability pred predictability and robust infrastructure and you can take the UAE as an example in terms of stability in terms of people want to come to the UAE because it’s a safe place because they know what to expect from the UAE from Dubai and from you know from from other places in in the UAE and that’s why My platform is focused on building resilient tourism frameworks that can withstand external shocks uh whether they’re economic, political or environment environmental. So um also as a secretary general I will focus uh my focus will be on fostering multilateral cooperation that transcends political cycles emphasizing long-term sustainable tourism strategies that deliver real economic impact for all members and I think that’s also an advantage of me being from the private sector because in like for someone that comes from the private sector, I know how it is working with uh government officials. I know how it is working with, you know, with regulators with and and how we can work together to make it easier for the consumer. All of which all of your answer there seem to contrast sharply with what we’ve been seeing coming out of of of Washington. Yes. Um, who do you think is benefiting or what in the in the travel industry? Who is benefiting from this diversion of travel away uh from the United States? I think who’s benefiting is destinations that know and have the right infrastructure, have the right compelness, have the right attractions and know what is needed for tourism to come their to come their way. So you need to make sure that you have also the right connectivity between uh countries in terms of uh uh airlift airlift capacity and frequency in terms of connectivity that’s all very important uh for tourism alves you are an executive at Rotana Group uh in out of the United Arab Emirates and you’re also candidate for the UN World Tourism Organization uh secretary general role. Thank you so much for speaking with us uh on Frano. Thank you so much. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you for having me. Well, that’s all for this week. Uh you can catch all of our previous episodes if you subscribe to People and Profit on the podcast platform of your choice. Now, it’s time to turn off the screen and see the real world for yourself. So, just this one time, don’t stay tuned to France 24. 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Global tourism has fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, but dark clouds are still hanging over the industry. High transport and accommodation costs, geopolitical instability and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events are among the key challenges the sector is facing. FRANCE 24’s Charles Pellegrin speaks to Shaikha Al Nowais. She’s a travel executive with decades of experience working at the UAE-based Rotana Group and is also a candidate for the role of UN World Tourism Organization Secretary General.
#tourism #sustainability #trump

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