“Experience the Grandeur Before They Vanish”

“……………it is clear that the worlds environment is being altered by human activities and that without remedial action the results may be catastrophic”

(WTTC position statement, WTO 10th General Assembly Bali, Indonesia)

Human interference has certainly has impeached the grandeur of the earth’s environment as well as the environment that he has created on his own. This has impacted the tourism industry in general and tourism products in particular resulting in the latest facet of global tourism_ ‘DOOMSDAY TOURISM’, a new concept speaks volumes about itself what it means.

A dig into the concept of Doomsday Tourism:

The rapidly changing world in reciprocation to the global warming is alarming the people to realize about the squeezing time before many of the destinations cease to exist or vanish permanently from the itineraries the coming days. There’s threat everywhere, threat of losing all the around us as the sea level is rapidly increasing, rare species are dying, topography is morphosing and atmosphere is polluting. All this and a lot more has caused irreparable damage to the most sought after destinations, species and primitive tribes pushing them on the brink of vanishing not late but very soon.

This has ultimately borne an unwantingly visible phenomenon of doomsday tourism. Conceptually doomsday tourism refers to the thinking that one hurries up to visit the famous and specific sightseeing spots which are under great threat of vanishing and they may disappear into oblivion once and for all mainly due to global warming and environmental disasters combined with human interference.

It’s implicit to know the key environmental issues under five headings as examined by WTTC way back in 1993,
1) Global warming
2) Depletion and pollution of water
3) Acid rains
4) Depletion and pollution of land
5) Depletion of ozone layer

The results are here, after fifteen years of descending trends of improvement there are today scores of places which are simply endangered.



How deep is the wound? _ The gravity of the issue:

Themovechannel.com lists these endangered and disappearing hotspots. Lets now borrow into the hard to digest but need to be aware of ‘the ten most endangered sites due to global warming which are contributing to the hotcakes sale of ‘doomsday tourism’:

1) Antarctica: the Muller ice shelf is and the Larsen ice shelf are shrinking dramatically.
2) Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania): Global warming is cursed for the melting of the year round snows at the summit of the Africa’s highest mountain. It is estimated that there won’t be any snow 15 years down the line.
3) Great Barrier Reef (O ff the east coast of Australia): the rising water temperatures are leading to bleaching of the famously vivid reefs is forecasted that 95% of the living corals will be killed by 2050.
4) Galapagos Islands (Ecuador): here too, riding temperatures are bleaching the corals and killing the marine species.
5) The Arctic ice cap: ice bergs are melting speedily due to global warming threatening the beauty of it and the very existence of the species such as polar bears.
6) The Maldives (Indian Ocean): Rising water levels could completely submerge these 1200 spectacular coral islands alluring millions of tourists and may vanish in not more than 100 years.
7) Alaska: Glaciers are shrinking and Parma frost is melting (soil at or below the freezing point of water (0 °C or 32 °F) for two or more years).
8) Kitbuhel (Austria): The world’s most famous ski run may disappear due to rising temperatures.
9) Venice (Italy): This Italian city is sinking into Adriatic and rising sea levels could worsen the situation.
10) Patagonian (South America): the splendid glaciers and feeders for perennial rivers are shrinking at great pace.

Ethical perspectives of Doomsday Tourism:

No doubt, all is not well with these destinations but the million dollar question arises at this juncture is; How ethical is it to travel to these threatened destinations?
It is argued that there’s nothing wrong in traveling to these destinations provided that is done responsibly_ in the lines of WTTC and WTO which advocate for a sustainable approach to tourism in which destinations resources are protected and preserved for the future generations.
But it’s also argued that the very labeling of these destinations has increased the scale of visiting tourists many fold in the last few years. Such a trend will only augment and hasten the predicted doomsday of these hotspots. It’s astonishing to know that according to IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Operators) over 46,000 tourists visited the Antarctic continent during 2007-08. Over 40,000 people visited Galapagos Islands in 1990 which increased to 1, 45.000 by 2006. These huge number of tourists how much ever responsible they pledge to be, invariably add to the environmental woes.

It is innate to the human nature to see something that may going to exist tomorrow, as a traveler one would never wish to miss out anything of this sort be it the town of Churchill in Canada famously known as ‘ The polar bear capital of the world’, crumbling Angkor Wat in Cambodia or the shading Taj Mahal in India. If a common man is to restrain from congesting an endangerd destination_ it like, Arindham Choudhary watching ‘ The Slumdog Millionaire’ and asking others to not to watch but at the end of the day everybody ends up watching it at least once to find out why the movie isn’t worth watching.

An emergency call for ‘Responsible Tourism’:

Simply because certain destinations are endangered you can not draw a line of control and restrain travelers from visiting them rather these destinations being prone to a thousand problems challenging their existence require better management; holistic in nature and practical approach. Having said that it’s important to answer the impending question_ ‘Can Doomsday Tourism be a Responsible Tourism’?

The answer is positively ‘YES’. It can certainly be the responsible tourism if scientifically managed. Educating the visitors and the hosts, developing sustainable modules and models, practicing green principles and subjecting the carrying capacity. Awareness is one big lesson that should be seriously indoctrinated to protect these endangered destinations.

Tour operators and travel agents should play a major role in discouraging this neo-concept and abstain from marketing it as doomsday tourism. Although officially its not marketed as doomsday tourism, most of them do operate tours to places of delicate nature and lure tourists with the concept of disappearing destinations.

A peep into the products of ‘Doomsday Tourism’:

There are several places which find place in the itineraries of tour operators. Interestingly the future generations to come may find it hard to witness, visit to, and experience these tourism products as they are getting ready to vanish.

A) The Most Endangered Natural Sites:
Apart from the top ten endangered destinations the other natural sites are_ Sonoran and Chihuan desert borderlands in Mexico, Pataganonian grasslands in Argentina, Great Lakes in United States and Canada, arid lands of Namibia, the Appalachians and Wes Indian coastline.
B) The Most Endangered Monuments:
The Word Monuments Watch (WMW) has enlisted 100 most endangered monuments. Among them the top monuments at great risk are_ Angkor Wat in Combodia, Taj Mahal in India, Byzantine Church in Hagia Safia in Istanbul Turkey, Tibetan Monuments in Nepal, Khami National monument in Zimbabwe, Ellis Island in New York and Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans U S.
C) The Most Endangered Species:
Countless species are also of tourist interest as part of doomsday tourism. The top most endangered species according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) are: Black rhino, giant panda, tiger, belnga surgeon, hawks bill turtle, alligator snapping turtle, green cheeked parrot, mako shark and big leaf mahogany.



D) The Most Endangered Rivers:
Salween (China, Mynmar,Thiland), Danube (Europe), La Plata (South America), Rio Granados (USA), Ganges (India), Indus (India and Pakistan), Nile (Africa), Murray-Darling, Mekong and Yangtze in China.
E) The Most Endangered Tribes:
There are tribes which are most endangered in different pockets of the world. These primitive tribes are very few in numbers living in the Amazon basin, central African forests, central India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Australia. World’s most primitive tribe at danger is jarwas of Nicobar Islands.

There is new terminology coming into usage every morning so is the ‘Doomsday Tourism which is a kind of Dark Tourism_ i.e. travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibition which have real or recreated death, the seemingly macabre, generating gloomy enthusiasm such as disaster tourism, grief tourism, poverty tourism. Although doomsday tourism aligned with these kinds its seemingly infamous kind as it stands tall among all of them as the gravity of influence upon the tourists is immense and immeasurable.

The Bottom line:

So, what’s the bottom line of the debate? Its never as simple as its thought since to encourage or not to encourage the intoxication of tourists hurrying up to see dooming places, people and wildlife is an pen option.
Nevertheless the practice of responsible tourism seems to be the answer to a lot of daunting questions and pave way for a better tomorrow for the generations to come, hopefully not cursing the spirit of their predecessors.

Hence, next time when you plan to visit either Mt. Kilimanjaro or long to see giant pandas in China or crave to spend time with jarwas of Nicobar islands, remember not to forget your responsibility i.e. to not to leave behind any footprints of yours. That way you would be the last person to cause any damage.

My last flip to readers (travelers):

Let’s not give chance to any of the transgalaxy inhabitants of earthlike planets somewhere in the other side of the Milky Way to add our green planet as a doomsday destination of their universal tour package!!

“If half the door is closed, so what! The other half of it is still wide open”