Climate Action Starts with the Territory
Tourism climate action becomes meaningful when global objectives are translated into the reality of individual places.
Climate change is a global challenge, but its effects are experienced locally.
Coastal areas, islands, rural territories, historic cities and mountain communities do not experience environmental change in the same way. Their resources are different, their economies are different and the relationship between tourism and the territory is different.
For this reason, climate action in tourism cannot be reduced to a standard collection of measures applied identically to every destination.
It needs to begin with a much simpler question:
What is happening to the territory?
For Coolvoyage Destinations, understanding the territory is the starting point of destination development. Climate action makes that principle even more important.
The territory comes before the tourism product
Tourism development has traditionally tended to begin with products.
Accommodation.
Attractions.
Experiences.
Events.
Transport.
Marketing.
But these are only the visible components of a much larger territorial system.
Behind every tourism experience there are landscapes, ecosystems, water and energy resources, infrastructure, food production, cultural heritage, local businesses, communities and mobility networks.
Climate change can affect all of them.
UN Tourism’s work around the COP30 Action Agenda illustrates how extensive these connections are. Tourism’s value chains intersect with areas ranging from energy, industry and transport to ecosystem conservation and restoration, sustainable food systems, climate-resilient urban planning and infrastructure, youth, innovation and capacity building.
This means that climate action in tourism cannot be considered only from within the tourism industry.
It requires understanding the wider system that makes a destination possible.
Reading the territory
Before deciding how a destination should respond to climate change, it is necessary to understand what already exists.
What are its principal natural resources?
Which ecosystems are particularly important or vulnerable?
How are water and energy used?
How do residents and visitors move through the territory?
Which economic activities depend on the landscape and environment?
What role do agriculture, food production and local supply chains play?
Which cultural resources and traditions are connected to the territory?
Where is tourism creating value, and where is it creating pressure?
These questions transform climate action from an abstract environmental objective into a process of territorial observation and understanding.
For destination development, this is fundamental.
A destination cannot determine how it needs to adapt until it understands what it needs to protect, strengthen or transform.
Different territories require different responses
An island destination may face pressure on water resources, coastal ecosystems, biodiversity and mobility.
A historic urban destination may need to consider heat, public space, transport, infrastructure and the relationship between visitors and residents.
A rural territory may experience changes affecting agriculture, landscapes, local production and biodiversity.
A mountain destination may need to reconsider seasonality and tourism activities as environmental conditions change.
The objective is therefore not to identify a universal model of a climate-resilient destination.
It is to develop the capacity of each territory to recognise its own vulnerabilities, resources and opportunities.
This is why place-based approaches are particularly relevant to sustainable destination development.
Tourism is part of the local ecosystem
A destination is often described through its tourism offer.
But from a territorial perspective, tourism is only one component of a much larger ecosystem.
A restaurant depends on food production and supply chains.
An outdoor experience depends on landscapes and biodiversity.
Accommodation depends on water, energy, infrastructure and labour.
Cultural tourism depends on heritage, local knowledge and communities capable of maintaining that heritage.
Mobility connects all of these elements.
When environmental conditions change, the relationships between them can also change.
Climate action therefore requires destinations to move beyond isolated interventions and consider how the different components of the territory interact.
UN Tourism’s COP30 climate agenda similarly places collaboration across sectors at the centre of implementation, alongside stronger governance and practical approaches to mitigation and adaptation.
From territorial resources to territorial resilience
Understanding territorial resources is already an important component of destination development.
Climate change adds another dimension: resilience.
A resource should not only be identified because it has tourism potential.
Its environmental condition, vulnerability and relationship with the wider territorial system also need to be understood.
A landscape may attract visitors, but it may also be an ecosystem under increasing environmental pressure.
Local food may enrich the visitor experience, but it also represents agricultural knowledge, production systems and economic relationships within the territory.
A historic centre may be a major attraction while simultaneously being a living environment for residents.
Climate-resilient destination development therefore requires a broader understanding of value.
The question is no longer simply:
“How can this resource become part of the tourism offer?”
It becomes:
“How can tourism interact with this resource without weakening the system that gives it value?”
And, where possible:
“Can tourism contribute to strengthening it?”
Local knowledge matters
Territories cannot be understood exclusively through statistics.
People who live and work within a destination often observe environmental and economic changes long before those changes become visible in formal tourism strategies.
Farmers may observe changes in growing seasons.
Local businesses may experience shifts in visitor behaviour.
Residents may recognise increasing pressure on infrastructure or natural resources.
Young people may perceive changes in how their territory offers opportunities for the future.
Tourism operators may see changes in seasonality, demand or environmental conditions.
This knowledge can contribute to a more complete understanding of the destination.
The importance of locally led approaches is also visible in UN Tourism’s COP30 programme, which highlighted community-based tourism and local climate initiatives connecting environmental stewardship, livelihoods, cultural identity and resilience.
From global climate action to local action
International frameworks are essential because climate change requires coordinated global action.
But destinations ultimately experience climate change in specific places.
This creates an important relationship between global frameworks and local implementation.
UN Tourism’s climate action work identifies governance, implementation, collaboration and finance as essential elements for accelerating the transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient tourism.
For individual destinations, these principles need to be translated into decisions about real territories:
Where should action begin?
Which resources are most vulnerable?
Who needs to participate?
What knowledge is already available locally?
Which tourism activities need to change?
Which relationships within the territory can be strengthened?
The answers will be different from one destination to another.
And that is precisely why the territory must come first.
A place-based approach to destination development
For Coolvoyage Destinations, sustainable destination development begins with identifying and understanding the resources that make a territory distinctive.
Natural resources.
Cultural heritage.
Landscapes.
Local production.
Communities.
Knowledge.
Infrastructure.
Tourism businesses and activities.
Climate change requires us to add another layer to that analysis: understanding how those resources are changing, how they are connected and how resilient those relationships are.
This creates a simple progression:
Observe → Understand → Connect → Adapt → Develop
Observation helps identify what exists and what is changing.
Understanding reveals the relationships between environmental, social, cultural and economic resources.
Connecting those resources makes it possible to develop a coherent destination rather than a collection of isolated tourism products.
Adaptation allows destination development to respond to changing environmental conditions.
Development transforms that knowledge into long-term territorial value.
Climate action therefore does not sit outside destination development.
It becomes part of the way we understand the territory before deciding how tourism should develop within it.
Sources & Further Reading
This article draws on the work developed by UN Tourism around Tourism Climate Action and the COP30 Action Agenda. UN Tourism highlights the relationship between tourism and areas including mitigation and adaptation, ecosystem conservation and restoration, sustainable food systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, collaboration and locally led action.
The territorial analysis and destination development perspective presented in this article have been developed by Coolvoyage Destinations.