Why climate change can be a springboard for sustainable tourism in the Mekong

Landscape of Guilin, Guangxi, China
Image courtesy of aphotostory

We're entering into the dry season for the Lower Mekong River Basin. 

The cool months between December and May represent peak tourist season for destinations around the region, a welcome opportunity for businesses coming out of the long tourism drought of the past two years. 

There's reason for concern, too. Dry seasons over the past couple of years have been more arid than usual: 2021 was the 9th driest year on record in the Mekong Basin. 

Experts worry that the 2022 dry season will be even more intense, with negative impacts on agricultural activity. 

The effects of climate change affect all of us around the Mekong – from food, to infrastructure, and even tourism. 

Unpredictable river levels due to climate change may have an impact on Mekong cruise tourism; rising prices for food may put struggling tourism enterprises out of business. 

However, tourism is also a driver of climate change: the global tourist industry alone is responsible for 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. 

Tourism in the Mekong Subregion must find a balance, attracting more tourists without growing the industry’s environmental footprint. 

Countries around the Mekong have sprung to action: from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) promoting the Carbon Neutral Tourism sector to Viet Nam’s resort town of Hoi An piloting five green tourism models, local initiatives are helping to usher in a more environmentally friendly, locally sustainable model of tourism that faces the challenge of climate change head-on. 

GMS countries are also actively collaborating to tackle climate change issues. 

The Cambodia Low-carbon Demonstration Zone in Sihanoukville and the China-Laos Saysettha Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone are just a few examples of this ongoing trans-national effort. 

About the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office 

The iconic Mekong River unites the six nations that make up the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The governments of Cambodia, Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China (PRC), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam established the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) in 2006 as a tourism collaboration framework to coordinate activities that boost tourism's contribution to inclusive economic growth and environmental sustainability in the GMS. MTCO’s work is guided by the GMS Tourism Working Group (TWG), which is made of senior representatives of the National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of the six member countries.