Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico: Balancing Adventure Travel Potential with Climate Change and Water Scarcity
New Report Highlights the Rapidly Emerging Economic Potential among the BRICMs for the Adventure Travel and Tourism Industry
(Santa Fe, NM) - May, 7 2010: Xola Consulting has released a new report, Climate Change, Water Scarcity, Sustainability and Adventure Travel in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico, as an extension of its 2009 Research Roundup, which was published in February 2010.
In the report, Xola focuses on the challenges faced by these five countries - key emerging global engines of economic growth - in addressing their climate-change and water-scarcity challenges while building travel and tourism services in a sustainable fashion.
The Xola report suggests a potentially positive link between the development of sustainable adventure tourism and climate change adaptation and mitigation practices. However, the report also notes that all of these countries continue to emphasize mass travel and tourism products and have significant sustainability challenges given their rapid economic growth.
The rapid and continuing shift from mass travel-oriented to specialty niche-oriented travel products can provide the BRICMs with the opportunity to manage travel-and-tourism development more sustainably than their developed-country counterparts historically. This could happen through the near- to intermediate-term implementation of more enlightened policies that support adventure-tourism product development, which are integrated into each country’s climate-change adaptation and mitigation efforts and broader economic development initiatives.
Highlighted among the findings are:
- Key differences over the last several years among the BRICMs in economic performance
- In-bound and outbound tourism growth
- Policies and investment strategies in climate-change adaptation and mitigation efforts
Infrastructure investment trends demonstrate how tourism may continue to develop in each country and be integrated into other economic-development initiatives. A discussion of each country’s carbon and water footprints is also included. Charts compare Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Intensity, improvements made with emissions, and increases in renewable energy sources. The rapid growth these countries are experiencing means rapid growth of energy use, outpacing growth in renewable sources.
The free report concludes with a discussion about the adventure-travel industry’s opportunity to contribute positively to the global conversation on economic development and growth and the challenges of climate change and water scarcity. Cultural, regional, economic, and resource diversity abounds among the BRICMs, and the techniques used to address sustainability issues will differ among these countries. The adventure travel industry, and the tour operators that operate in these five countries, must play a major role in ensuring the success of sustainability initiatives that address climate change and water scarcity issues.
About Xola Consulting
Xola Consulting, Inc. (www.xolaconsulting.com) is a consulting and research services firm assisting governments, tour operators, and non-profit organizations with sustainable adventure tourism destination and product development, marketing and research. Xola launched Off the Radar (travelofftheradar.com) in 2005 to provide travelers with information about the best entrepreneurial adventure operators around the world – those who provide guests with a genuine, personal experience; who believe in sustainable, environmentally sensitive travel; and who believe in incorporating the local people and traditions of the places where they operate.
