Climate Change Heavily Hits Tourism in Pacific

Host: Can you talk about the effects in terms of the economy and society?

Sam Savou: Ok. I think when you look at the climate change, it cannot be looked at in isolation, because for the Pacific, tourism is a big part of the Pacific. And when you look at the tourism, in some countries, it’s about 70 percent of GDP. Take for example, the Cook Islands. With the effects of climate change, what we have seen this year is Cook Islands had a shortage of water because of global warming. And if there is a shortage of water, that affects tourism industry because you can’t service the tourists that come, because there is no water. This is some effects that is happening. Another example is in Tuvalu, where because of the warming of climate, you can see now the carol is bleaching. And then the tourists that come to go to the beach want to see carol, if the carol is bleaching, they don’t come to see bleached carol. So that affects the tourism industry. On the economic side, there is a big impact. And so that has a rolling effect for the economy as well. For countries that heavily rely on tourism, this is one of the examples, where it can affect the economy, it can affect the whole running of the country.