Photo credit: Ibrahim Rifath via Unsplash.
With the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, we’re seeing countries across the world close their borders once again. After the initial closure of borders in 2020, we saw a collapse in international travel and tourism, which caused massive losses in international revenue for tourism-dependent countries. More specifically, a loss in exports of travel services such as money spent by nonresident visitors in a country and exports of transport services such as airline revenue from flight tickets sold to nonresidents and visitors. Tourism-dependent economies are suffering greatly from a major loss in revenue generated from international travel and tourism.
Tourism-dependent countries’ economies had been struggling since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. These countries had begun to rebuild their economies and open up their borders when they were hit with a mutation of the disease known as the Delta (Plus) variant. This variant was first identified in India in late-2020 and soon spread around the world by mid-2021. 2020 was named the worst year in tourism history according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Still, people were hopeful that 2021 would bring less death, fewer restrictions, and more freedom. With the caveat of being fully vaccinated and, in some cases, providing proof of a negative covid test, several countries, including the United States, opened up their borders to international travel and tourists by early November of 2021. Due to lifted travel bans, things began looking up for economies dependent on tourism and international travel. This, however, did not last long. Less than 20 days later, on November 24th, 2021, the identification of a new variant, named Omicron, was discovered in South Africa.
Many of these tourism-dependent countries are also countries with rich species diversity. And many of the communities in these countries have become dependent on a tourism economy as a primary means of “valuing” the wildlife with which they live. International development and conservation have traditionally focused on demonstrating the economic value of wildlife (through ecotourism or safari hunting, for example) as a primary incentive for protecting wildlife. What will happen to this wildlife if this economic value collapses? Many communities in species-rich countries have had these multifaceted relationships and values of wildlife throughout their history. An emphasis on economic values over all other values is a relatively recent approach that, we would argue, has proven to be unsustainable in the face of shocks like a collapse of tourism, climate change, and a global pandemic.
OneNature has studied the multiple benefits to communities of wildlife. Creating livelihoods through eco-tourism and other sustainable wildlife-based business is important to many communities, but the benefits of conservation to communities is much broader. Healthy wildlife is important for healthy ecosystems that support many types of livelihoods along with food security, clean air, clean water, and other necessary services for people and nature. Healthy wildlife contributes to the mental and physical health of people- local and tourist alike, as well as a host of cultural and spiritual benefits that have been important to communities throughout human history. OneNature believes that this tourism collapse and pandemic could serve as an important opportunity to rethink how we support communities living with wildlife. We believe it is vital to understand community well-being, beyond just economic well-being, and appreciate the multi-faceted relationships communities have with local wildlife. We must support communities in prioritizing projects and actions that create more resilience against shocks like a reduction in tourism revenue, climate impacts on ecosystems, pandemics, and other stressors. This can not be relegated to future decision-making. These shocks are here, now. Society can begin to shift our focus from rebuilding to serve our economies to rebuilding in a way that serves our well-being.
The Maldives, for example, is the country most dependent on tourism and international travel for its economic growth. The contribution of tourism in the Maldives’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as of June 2021, is $3 billion, or 75.1% of the total GDP. 80,400 jobs (36.7% of total jobs) in the Maldives are reliant on tourism. The Maldives has closed its borders and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs has issued a level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory due to health risks from COVID-19. The Maldives entered the pandemic with weak fiscal conditions, and since the country is heavily dependent on revenue generated from the tourism sector, the Maldives saw a significant shock. The Maldives saw a considerable decrease in GDP growth from 2019 to 2020, specifically a change of -32% from $5.63 million to $3.74 million.
While many people travel to the Maldives to experience the beautiful beaches, the islands offer more than just that. The Maldives is home to a vast and diverse array of wildlife. The islands that make up the Maldives themselves have foundations made up of coral reefs. Each year, wildlife tourism accounts for a significant amount of the total tourism in the Maldives. Even though their GDP has dropped significantly, the holistic value of local wildlife remains. To tourists in the Maldives, diving and snorkeling with sharks are the most valuable and sought-after wildlife experiences. A study done in 2017 found that by increasing the shark populations, tourism demands can increase by 15%. This study also asserted that the socio-economic benefits derived from wildlife tourism, specifically sharks, depends on the effective management and conservation of shark populations. If the Maldives were to limit shark conservation, for example, because of the drop in tourism, future tourism to the Maldives would also be in jeopardy. And, of course, sharks play a vital role in the ecosystem. According to Save Our Sharks, “Sharks maintain ecosystem balance, promote herbivore abundance, help coral reefs to fight climate change and encourage phytoplankton growth by transporting nutrients from the deep to the shallows. In 2016, shark divers brought over US $65 million to the Maldives local economy and skipjack tuna fishermen report that healthier sharks populations help their fishery by making it easier for them to locate tuna schools out at sea”. The Maldives, with support from the rest of the world, while rebuilding and refinancing to pull themselves out of their current economic standing, have the opportunity to lean into wildlife conservation as a way to increase well-being of locals and tourists alike.
So, what does all of this mean now that we are facing the third COVID-19 wave? Countries dependent on tourism, like the Maldives, the Bahamas, Dominica, Iceland, and more, will continue to face immediate and complex challenges in response to tourism and travel restrictions. These challenges will continue to worsen as travel bans and tourism decline. The longer we are stuck in a cycle of new COVID-19 variants emerging that are followed by the closure of national borders and travel, the more difficult it will be for economies dependent on tourism to rebuild and refinance. Now is the chance to reexamine the well-being implications of a dependence on eco-tourism and rebuild in a way that focuses on the well-being of a community and country as well as potential tourists. The longer we value our lives and make decisions using economic indicators alone, the more likely we are to make short-term economic decisions. Now there is both the challenge and the opportunity to rebuild based on the holistic well-being of people and wildlife.