Abta has added sustainability and climate-related risks to the “strategic” challenges it judges the association and industry face in its latest accounts.
The list of strategic risks in recently published financial statements for the 12 months to June 2024 includes references to climate change and to protests at ‘overtourism’ for the first time.
The accounts note: “Climate change, sustainability and the environment continued to increase in importance for the sector and in media coverage about it. Wildfires in August 2023 in Greece required the evacuation of UK holidaymakers in some cases, bringing climate change issues to the fore.”
Abta also notes: “A number of protests from local people, in the Canaries, Balearics and other [destinations], drew attention to the problems they identified with overtourism and the impact on their lives of large numbers of visitors.”
It added these ‘risks’ to “a number of wider issues [with] the potential to present challenges for the sector”, with Abta “factoring in responses to them in its work programme”.
Abta introduced a “risk that members do not develop compelling sustainability programmes” to its core strategic risks in accounts for 2021-22, pledging: “Abta will push on from its Tourism for Good report to demonstrate members’ progress towards a more sustainable travel model in respect of climate change and other environmental and social impacts.”
The association launched its Tourism for Good roadmap for rebuilding travel in October 2020.
The latest accounts note Abta “is actively pursuing a decarbonisation policy agenda” and “stepped up engagement with the Sustainable Aviation alliance over the past year”.
Addressing the Travel Convention in October, Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer warned: “The challenge of global warming and climate change has intensified. The evidence of accelerating change is all around us. It’s quite possible certain types of holiday, in certain locations, will become unviable, and the unpredictability of the weather increases business risk throughout the supply chain.”
He also warned: “We cannot turn a blind eye to overtourism, saying it’s due only to the growth of the private rental market. Finding the right balance between the interests of hosts and tourists requires adaptation on both sides.”
The accounts, published in late December, showed a £344,000 profit on Abta’s trade association activities – the first since the pandemic – and a group profit of more than £3.4 million.