• Rising extreme weather events are disrupting travel patterns, impacting operators, destinations, and travellers globally
• While regions like Europe and Australia are already experiencing significant effects, Asia is starting to catch up
• Operators are adapting tours and schedules, highlighting the need for education and innovation in sustainable tourism

At the beginning of 2024, the UN published research that climate change may affect tourism and agricultural output. The world is predicted to experience increasing climate disasters, high food prices and more extreme weather. This, coupled with the effects of El Niño – even more emphasised this year from climate change – is predicted to lower the global GDP.

Indeed, the tourism industry in Asia is increasingly feeling the heat as climate change and extreme weather conditions disrupt traditional travel patterns and operations. While the effects are more pronounced in regions like Europe, the US, and Australia, Asia is catching up, with significant implications for travel operators, destinations, and travellers.

Bruce Poon Tip, founder of global small adventure tours operator G Adventures, highlighted the unpredictability of seasons, which is causing widespread disruption. “We’re seeing more unpredictability around the seasons which is causing disruption everywhere from the southern hemisphere where wet and dry seasons are becoming more extreme – we are constantly monitoring where we can and cannot run,” he commented, adding that the critical incident management side of the business is challenging.

He further explained: “Along with political instability, climate and environmental change is becoming the biggest influence on where we can safely visit. Although G Adventures has the resources to adapt to this more than others, for smaller operators, the negative impact of climate change and natural disasters will unfortunately cause many more problems.”

Impact on operators
Earth marked World Environment Day this year by recording the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures. The Copernicus Climate Change report, released on June 5, noted that May’s global temperatures were 1.52 degrees Celsius above historical averages, making it the hottest May on record.

In Thailand, scorching temperatures are impacting tourist behaviour and operations. Ewan Cluckie of Tripseed noted they’ve seen travellers struggling, especially during the peak heat of March and April: “We have seen some travellers arrive in Thailand and decide it is too hot for them (to go on the tour or to continue part way into the tour), especially during March and April when the dryness and heat can be at its worst.”

Cluckie said the Tripseed team is trained to advise on these factors during the booking process to ensure clients have the right expectations prior to travel – however, the level of heat can come as a nasty surprise once travellers are actually exposed to it. 

“Some travellers can (overestimate their heat tolerance). While we haven’t seen a decline in bookings – even the hottest months of March and April saw 5-7x growth respectively year on year for Tripseed when compared with 2023 – what has been impacted is where our team is recommending people to travel, and the activities people are choosing to embark on. This is moving more bookings towards the southern provinces of Thailand and towards less strenuous or active itineraries,” he explained, adding that in the worst cases, for those who struggle with planned tours – such as having second thoughts an hour or two into a cycling or trekking tour – Tripseed helps adjust itineraries, recommending clients to enjoy a less vigorous activity outdoors, or something indoors away from the heat altogether.

Thiam Wei Toh of Indie Singapore Tours echoed this, with erratic weather affecting its walking tours and leading to frequent no-shows.

Travel companies are adapting. Local Alike in Thailand is developing night tours to cater to tourists overwhelmed by the heat. Its founder Somsak Boonkam said: “Our customers, Thai and foreign alike, are very sensitive to heat – we’ve noticed they can’t take more than one to two hours in the sun. We’re developing night tours that will be launched later this month as an alternative option.”

In Malaysia, Universal Holidays Travel & Tourism has adjusted its tour schedules to avoid the intense afternoon heat. Founder and CEO Zahira Tahir explained: “Malaysia is experiencing hotter weather this year compared to previous years. We now start our half-day city tours of Kuala Lumpur around 8.00 or 9.00, finishing by lunchtime to avoid the intense midday heat – in previous years, these tours started at 10.00.”

Extreme weather in Thailand this April also disrupted the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) plans to host a 21-day Songkran festival in celebration of the holiday’s declaration as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.

The extended festival, aimed at stimulating longer trips during Thai New Year, faced challenges as travellers were adverse to the extreme temperatures. In response, TAT campaigned to promote morning and evening tourism activities during that period instead.

Looking to the future
Kevin Phun, director of The Centre for Responsible Tourism in Singapore, suggested that these changes faced due to a shifting climate are not all doom and gloom, but rather an opportunity for travel companies to package this as education and shift their messaging.

“Quite soon we may see some of these travel experiences becoming what the tourism industry calls ‘last chance tourism’ – but it is not necessarily a negative thing. It just places the onus more on travel companies to think more about education, the messaging (that needs to) change,” he commented, adding that the travel companies may need to “rethink how they have been doing things” and that it “has to be different from how they have done so in the last few decades”.

Phun also highlighted the changing demographics in travel, with millennials and Gen Z increasingly becoming the main consumer segments. “These are people who were born in the generation where in their conversations, they are often talking about such things – sustainability, responsibility, and the SDGs. So, it’s a different ball game now for tour companies, but it’s also a little bit easier because the audience that you’re going to serve in the next few years are people who are familiar and conversant with this topic.”

Witsanu Attavanich, an environmental economist and climate researcher at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, noted that as climate change effects become more pronounced, costs will rise for the industry, necessitating investment and innovation to counteract global warming.

Poon Tip commented: “Adventure travellers are resilient and will continue to travel regardless of the conditions as it’s so important to their being. We’ll see changes in which destinations they can visit, however, and the time of year they travel.”

“I think we are still a little way from seeing a change of trends due to weather, but it will inevitably come to that if global temperatures continue to rise,” Cluckie stated. – Additional reporting by Karen Yue and S Puvaneswary