Our View: Can Cyprus balance tourism and sustainability?

We often hear about how air travel and mass tourism have contributed to climate change. Under the circumstances it was rather strange that the deputy ministry of tourism organised a conference on the effects of climate change and how the government was working to protect the tourism industry.

These efforts would be integrated into the National Tourism Strategy, said President Nikos Christodoulides, in his speech at the conference, adding that the government was committed to safeguarding Cyprus’ “enviable climate and natural beauty while facing the looming threat of climate change.”

Deputy minister of tourism Costas Koumis was on the same wavelength, warning that without timely actions there would be a reduction in tourists arriving in Mediterranean destinations such as Cyprus, Greece and Spain. He was referring to the record high temperatures and the devastating wildfires. We had to realise that “climate change is indeed a threat to tourism and determine how to tackle it,” Koumis said.

It did not seem to occur to the speakers that mass tourism, which they want to protect, by tackling climate change is part of the problem. Air travel, which has boosted tourism worldwide, helping the economies of many poor countries, is partly to blame for climate change, according to scientists. There are campaigners that have been arguing in favour of reducing air travel as a way of fighting climate change, a view that is gaining traction at international bodies, including the UN.

Cyprus is unlikely to have a say on this, but at the same time it could try to pursue sustainable tourism, to which our politicians regularly pay lip service, without doing anything about it. In fact, Koumis makes a habit of frequently boasting about the record numbers of tourist arrivals and high occupancy rates of hotels, without giving sustainability the slightest thought.

The bigger the number of arrivals, the bigger the strain on the island’s resources and the bigger the harm done to our environment. Power stations, still running on mazut, increase carbon emissions, desalination plants need to constantly increase output, more food needs to be imported (often by air) and so forth, not to mention the harm we are causing our environment with uncontrolled development.

Cyprus’ natural beauty that the president spoke about at the conference is not only threatened by climate change – it is also threatened by uncontrolled development which has covered much of it in cement. The government should leave the fight against climate change to big states with resources and expertise and focus on protecting the island’s future by actually taking action that ensures sustainable – as opposed to unrestrained – tourist development.

Sustainable development must be the key objective of the National Tourism Strategy, when it is finally formulated.