Checking In with Professor James Higham

Tourism is associated with travel, holidays, and fun. But tourism is also a driver of impacts that are felt unequally – and those impacts are being intensified by climate change. This is now the focus of attention among tourism scholars researching in the field of climate justice.

Our most visited places depend on ecosystems that are fragile, slow to heal and central to our collective wellbeing. So how can tourism shift from drawing on these ecosystems to actively nourishing what feeds us?

Communication technologies are redefining tourism and creating new opportunities to design and deliver immersive and regenerative visitor experiences. Our current research programme is now exploring these possibilities in the South Westland Tai Poutini case study region, and benefiting enormously from a collaborative, co-design research approach.

Earlier this month the International Civil Aviation Organisation concluded its 42nd General Assembly in Montreal. The result has been another dismal failure for action on international aviation emissions and a failure for sustainable tourism. It raises the question: at what point do you accept that ICAO is incapable of dealing with aviation emissions?

What does nature mean to you? It’s a very simple question. But nature means many different things to many different people. In Aotearoa New Zealand the case of Te Urewera requires us to think about relational values and questions of environmental justice. It also challenges us to think carefully about national parks as a form of colonialism. 

How times have changed. In the 1990s New Zealand’s premier nature experiences included pulling over at roadside scenic lookouts or, for the more adventurous, tramping on the Great Walks. Now, welcome to the world of Te Araroa and not backpacking, but bikepacking. 

The climate is changing and the tourism industry must be prepared. But who pays for the impacts of climate change? Last week the Australia Institute published a report that outlines its response to this question – arguing the need for a National Climate Disaster Fund.

A proposal to open cast mine for gold in Central Otago is hoping to proceed under the current governments contentious fast track legislation. Surely it is stating the obvious that in terms of open cast mining and sustainable tourism, this is a case of one or the other, but not both.