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Landscape of Guilin, Guangxi, China Image courtesy of aphotostory |
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.
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