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Less than five years after the pandemic brought global tourism to a grinding halt, the sector has roared back to health. While this resurgence has been a boon for the economies of destination countries, it has brought with it renewed environmental risks – particularly in vulnerable coastal areas.
According to the United Nations, 1.4 billion people traveled internationally in 2024, with many locations drawing more visitors than before the pandemic. Spending was healthy too. Adjusted for inflation and currency fluctuations, travel receipts rose to $1.6 trillion, 4 percent above 2019 levels.
While all this travel is good news for the countries that rely on tourism for economic growth, it has also strained ecosystems – particularly in heavily visited and ecologically sensitive areas.
Unchecked, tourism can place a heavy burden on natural spaces, generating waste and pollution, harming habitats, pushing up greenhouse gas emissions, and depleting natural resources, products, and materials.
Tourism’s economic importance cannot be understated. The industry accounts for more than 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and, in 2019, generated more than one in 10 of all jobs. More than half of tourism jobs are held by women.
Some 30 percent of the GDP of Small Island Developing States depends on visitors who want to relax on their coasts and swim in their oceans. But unless nature is factored into planning, tourism risks damaging the very landscapes that are most attractive to tourists. This is why the health of nature is essential for the health of the sector.
A new program funded by the Global Environment Facility is working to ease the pressure on nature: by promoting the adoption of sustainable tourism practices in 14 countries whose coastal communities attract multitudes of visitors each year.
The Integrated Collaborative Approaches to Sustainable Tourism program – iCOAST – is helping the governments and tourism industries of Belize, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Jamaica, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Maldives, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Türkiye, and Vanuatu to be more sustainable.
The UN Development Programme will lead the program, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Environment Programme, the UN Industrial Development Organization, and the World Wildlife Fund-US.
Work will be done in collaboration with UN Tourism and the Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm, and Minamata Conventions, along with hotels and other tourism stakeholders.
iCOAST will focus on four critical actions in partner nations: creating or strengthening policies and regulations; improving funding access; greening the supply chains the industry relies upon; and disseminating knowledge among participant countries.
Its goal is to reduce the environmental harm caused by unsustainable tourism while nurturing thriving and equitable local economies. This will benefit everyone: from the travelers seeking beautiful coasts to explore, to the communities eager to welcome them.
iCOAST will yield a host of benefits. Work done under its auspices will reduce water, soil, and air pollution; lower greenhouse gas emissions; rein in consumption of natural resources, products, and materials; and conserve biodiversity – all while creating equitable livelihoods and jobs for local communities.
The first of iCOAST’s four focus areas – policies and regulations – will help partner nations craft regulations and voluntary certifications that encourage the adoption of low-carbon, low-chemical, and zero-waste approaches.
To unlock the funding the industry will need for the transition to sustainable tourism, iCOAST will work with governments, international and national lenders, development banks, national commercial banks, and microfinance institutions to develop innovative instruments that spur investment. Small- and medium-sized enterprises will receive particular attention.
The third component of the program aims to reduce the environmental footprint of tourism-linked supply chains by working with government, industry associations, tourism facilities, and suppliers to create guidelines and financial incentives for sustainable and green procurement.
The aim is to encourage the companies that supply tourism essentials – from food and beverages to plastics, textiles and furnishings, building materials, and electronics – to make the shift to renewable energy, create climate-resilient infrastructure, and source products locally and responsibly. Work in this area will promote steps that reduce carbon emissions, harmful chemicals, waste and pollution, and reverse biodiversity loss.
And since the sharing of both successes and challenges is a powerful way to inspire wider change, iCOAST will establish national and global knowledge management platforms. These will promote fruitful partnerships, encourage information-sharing, and, ultimately, make it possible to duplicate effective measures elsewhere.
