This Tourism Week Number 35 - Monday, 12 June 2004

THIS WEEK - The real threat to the tourism industry isn’t terrorism - it’s capitalism. And something about the barefootBenefit.

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Know Our Enemy

Tourism is facing its biggest threat ever, and it looks to me like the whole shebang could literally go up in smoke before people of my generation (I’m 45) have used up our allotted four-score-years-and-ten.

The threat doesn’t come from the possibility of international terrorism - it comes from the certainty of diminishing energy supplies. But what are the airline companies doing about it? Well, they’re telling their pilots to fly slower and to use just one engine when taxiing.

Now that’s what I call big thinking.

In an on-line article published by eTurboNews (June 9, 2004), Brad Foss of Canadian Press reported that “pilots for Ted, United Airlines’ low-fare carrier, flew 23 kilometers an hour slower at cruise altitude over the Memorial Day weekend…. At American Airlines, planes flying trans-Atlantic flights now carry less emergency fuel, to lighten their loads…

“… With high oil prices stifling the airline industry’s recovery, US carriers are finding ways to cut back on the amount of fuel they use, placing an emphasis on fuel efficiency not seen since the 1980s energy crisis… Some carriers said they recently lowered their fuel-burn rate in the air and on the ground by as much as three percent on certain routes. That is not nearly enough to counter the industry’s anticipated loss of US$3 billion in 2004, but the amount saved is not chump change either for a business that spends roughly one out of every seven of its pennies at the pump… ”

“… Ted reduced the maximum flying speed of its planes from 853 km/h to 830 km/h over the Memorial Day weekend, saving about 11,350 liters of fuel while sacrificing “very little” on its on-time performance [said Steve Forte, senior vice-president of flight operations at UAL Corp]. United is considering making the change fleet-wide…

“… Other steps airlines are taking before and after flights to reduce fuel spending include using one engine while taxiing on runways; plugging into electric generators at terminals to keep planes powered between flights; filling up their planes tanks in cities where prices are lowest..”

In that same June 9 edition of eTurboNews, editor Nelson Alcantara wrote that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) - which estimates that the industry lost a total of US$30 billion in the last three years - was hoping that this would be a year of recovery.

Reporting on its annual meeting in Singapore on Sunday, 6 June, Alcantara said that the Association had forecast a US$3 billion profit for the year - but that this target might not be met because of rising fuel prices.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General, was quoted as saying that the industry loses US$1 billion for every dollar-per-barrel increase in the price of crude oil and that “higher fuel prices would mean $8 billion to $12 billion in extra costs for the industry.”

Now you could argue that IATA isn’t blind to its problems - because, according to Alcantara, it “hopes to help the industry by bringing approximately US$1 billion savings in fuel this year, as well as ‘identifying new, more efficient routes’.”

But you could also argue that it has completely missed the point.

Oil is a finite resource and even if the current price is high because the OPEC ministers need new palaces or because the President of the USA wears the wrong ties, the truth is that one way or another the price of oil will eventually go through the roof simply because oil will eventually become very scarce indeed.

And what are the airlines going to do when it just isn’t available any more? Panic?

And what are they going to do until then? Fly slower?

In order to win a war you need to know your enemy. And the enemies of tourism - and especially of sustainable tourism - are the international oil companies and the governments who support them.

You see, the problem is that the oil companies see themselves as oil companies - and not as energy companies. They’re content to pump the stuff out of the ground, to show ever-improving results and to pay huge dividends at the end of every year - which is as far as they seem to be able to look.

They don’t seem to have any real long-term vision - and oil is not a long-term resource.

Time is running out and we need to find viable alternates. And although I’m not one for legislation, I do believe that governments have a duty to lead by telling the oil companies to invest 10% of their profits into researching renewable energy sources. And then those same governments should ask consumers - including the airlines - to reward those that do by supporting them, and to boycott those that don’t.

Because the companies that don’t will have shown that they’re not interested in the long-term future of the modern economy.

There are viable alternate energy resources which won’t run out, and from what I’ve read it seems that hemp seed oil could be the most viable of all. But if you look at the history of hemp, you’ll find that the big oil companies were right behind the campaign to have it banned (they latched onto the ‘horrors of pot’ to win their grubby little war and yes, hemp seed oil and dagga do come from the same plant. But then methanol - which can kill you - and the alcohol we drink, ethanol, come from the same plant, too). I once read that if the United States gave just 10% of its agricultural land to growing hemp, it could satisfy the energy needs of its entire economy - and that would include its airline energy needs - in perpetuity.

My point, then, is twofold: that as long as we continue to rely on oil, high oil prices will be here to stay. And oil cannot sustain our industry into the future - or at least not into a long term future which goes beyond the next election or the next annual general meeting of shareholders.

The secret to winning any war is to know your enemy - and the enemy for tourism is the non-sustainability of the transport industry. Which is why, if we want to survive, we need to begin lobbying for massive research into other energy solutions.

And tourism would serve itself best if it took the lead in this regard.

… Have a Great Tourism Week!

 

MARTIN HATCHUEL - BarefootWriter

 

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