Checking In with Professor James Higham

Ep.12: TIA Summit 2024 – the very good and the… must do better, but how to close the gap?

Last week I attended the TIA Summit. It was a great event – really well organised – and a great opportunity to showcase the leading businesses in innovation and sustainability. It also showcased a few cases of ‘must do better’ and a yawning gap between the dominate industry players and the world leading innovation of small and medium businesses.

Ep.11: Tarras Airport – the ebb and flow of a story that is just to reach a conclusion

About two years ago Christchurch International Airport Ltd revealed a plan to transform the sleepy Central Otago township of Tarras into an international airport. The proposal caused disbelief initially - soon followed by anger. What follows makes for a fascinating story, the latest chapter of which perhaps offers a little bit of vindication.

Ep.10: Divided views on cruise tourism: what are the issues and who is telling the truth?

Last week the first cruise ships of the new season arrived back into New Zealand ports. The New Zealand media tend to mark the return of cruise ships with excitement. But many are unhappy about cruise ships visiting their port communities. So what are the issues – and why are views so divided? 

Ep.9. Musk vs Bezos vs Branson... vs humanity

We have seen some remarkable advances in space transportation in recent days and months. But space flight risks the destruction of both terrestrial and celestial environments, through extension into the cosmos of economic systems that have contributed to inequality and climate catastrophe on Earth. These risk justify very careful consideration, because the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Episode 8. Tourism Commission required to advance urgent sector transformation

As this years United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP29 - in Baku approaches next month, it is timely to ask how progress towards decarbonising tourism is going. The answer is, not nearly as quickly as required. A big part of the problem is that we lack the coordinated approach to tourism that is needed to advance urgent sector transformation.

Episode 7: The impact of DNA on sex tourism - could this change things for good?

DNA has opened up new avenues of research in genealogy, human evolution, and criminal forensics among others. So what are the links between DNA and sustainable tourism? In this episode, I consider the impact DNA research and technology may have on sustainable tourism - specifically sex tourism where exploitation of women is rife.

Episode 6: Carbon offsetting: after two decades, has it really taken off?

High carbon lifestyles are a driver of climate change and tourism is a prominent feature of high carbon lifestyles. Carbon offsetting emerged as a possible solution almost 20 years ago. Airlines began to offer offsetting as an option for travellers to resolve their personal air travel emissions, but it never really took off. Despite becoming central to many airlines' environmental commitments, very few passengers ever opted to offset their emissions. So what is carbon offsetting? What are its merits and where has it got us?

Episode 5. Can we fly less? Airlines, air travel and “healthy persuasion”.

You may have seen that Wizz Air recently ran a promotion for the sale of 10,000 ‘all you can fly’ packages. This triggered a lot of debate online particularly among members of the public who are concerned about climate change and recognise the need to reduce rather than unnecessarily increase demand for air travel. This raises interesting questions about how accepting people are of the idea of unlimited flying, and how receptive people are to changing their own personal travel behaviours.