REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS - Tourism faces climate destruction

Reuters, Friday, April 06, 2007

COLOMBO: Enjoy your exotic Asian beach or skiing holidays while you can. In coming decades, warmer weather, rising seas, more intense storms, even changes in ocean currents will literally wipe some idyllic destinations off the tourist map, experts say. Thousands, and possibly millions, of jobs could be lost.

Tourism accounts for 35 per cent of the Maldives’ annual GDP of around $800 million. But the Indian Ocean island chain, on average just 1.5 metres above sea level, risks disappearing within generations if sea levels rise in line with the UN climate panel’s predictions.
Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Brussels on Friday issued the bleakest UN warning yet about the impacts of global warming.

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