As much travel remains paused, the tourism industry has an opportunity to rethink how we do business.

No doubt 2020 will go down in history as one of the most challenging years for tourism post World War II. In the spring, tourism ground to a virtual halt. The economic effects can’t be overstated. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, “Travel & Tourism is responsible for 330 million jobs, or one in 10 jobs globally, and 10.3 percent of global GDP (USD 8.9 trillion).”

However, as the travel industry, and travelers, look forward to a day when virtually unrestricted travel again becomes the norm, now is a good time to look at the effects of both tourism and lack of tourism.  

“Tourism is wonderful when it’s in balance,” says Sven Lindblad, founder and CEO of Lindblad Expeditions. “But it’s not so wonderful when it overwhelms destinations and the sense of place actually disappears.” And he notes, today we’re seeing the opposite extreme—when lack of tourism brings both unexpected benefits and problems.

“In Dubrovnik, residents can play soccer in the streets, you can occasionally see the Himalayas from Delhi, and dolphins have been seen in the Douro River in Portugal,” Lindblad says, noting just some of the surprising bonuses of a world with fewer tourists. But on the flip side, the lack of tourists and the oversite they provide by default has also led to an increase in incidences such as rhinoceros poaching in Africa and the largest fleet of Chinese fishing boats seen in years just outside the territorial waters of the Galapagos Islands.

“The travel industry as a whole has a huge opportunity to make a difference,” says Lindblad. “We need a confluence between industries, governments and travelers to help protect our world. Post-pandemic, governments are going to be even less capable of doing these things because resources are going to be so stretched. So, it’s up to us in this industry to lead these efforts.”

This concept of protecting the places we travel to is certainly not new. The challenge is balancing the economic opportunities of global tourism with the accompanying threat to natural resources and the environment. The world is a fragile place and tourism could be highly destructive if accompanied by rampant, thoughtless growth.

With that kind of legacy, it’s no surprise that responsible tourism has always been a hallmark of Lindblad Expeditions, and even more so today. “We are all dependent on the health of the nature, culture and history of the places we visit,” he says. “Ultimately in one form or another, that’s why people travel. And it’s in all our interests to protect these places and their precious legacies.”  

We now have an opportunity to “Create meaningful change for our travelers. To support a greater level of care for the nature, culture and history of the places to which we travel. We used to view tourism as a form of cultural exchange—a way to broaden our understanding, which is so critical to making our world a better place. We can do that again, with tourism serving as an accelerator of understanding and a protector of our natural resources. It’s our responsibility to create these big, bold ideas that will have meaningful results.”