What Tourist Destinations Want You to Know Before You Travel There

With lots of sandy places to spread a towel, shipwreck diving sites, and waves begging to be surfed, the Outer Banks of North Carolina have all the ingredients for a dreamy beach vacation. Yet, the people who live in this sought-after summer destination are communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 

“With climate change, you have more intense storms and the Outer Banks could really be taken out,” said Emily Benton, 18, one of the more than 35,000 full-time residents of the barrier islands that jut out into the Atlantic Ocean. “When the tourists come here, they’re not thinking about that. They’re thinking about having a good time and being with their friends or their family, and I get that, but I do think they need to think about the future and what they can do so that doesn’t happen.”

Some areas of the Outer Banks, which spans nearly 200 miles, have lost more than 200 feet of shoreline in the last two decades, with some spots now losing 13 feet of beach per year, according to Yale Environment 360. At the same time, the area has seen an increase in tourism and development. 

“It’s such a double-edged sword because we need the tourists, but they bring the traffic,” said Benton. “People will come onto the beach with their big diesel trucks and have all these fumes coming out. There are houses going up everywhere, there’s all this construction on the roads, and all that [development] can contribute to climate change. The beach used to be super wide, but it’s becoming so much more narrow and it’s crazy to think that the beaches are eroding that quickly. The ocean is eating our community.” 

It’s not a problem unique to the Outer Banks or even coastal communities. From Hawaii to Spain to New Zealand to Italy’s Cinque Terre, places worldwide are grappling with balancing the economic benefits of tourism with the need to preserve and protect the land their lives are built on.

“When we’re on holiday, we stay in a place someone else calls home. We essentially become temporary residents. We make use of local resources and infrastructure like water, power, roads, housing, hiking trails, it’s a long list,” said Justin Francis, the cofounder and CEO of Responsible Travel. “But we don’t pay for any of those services. That can put a huge strain on popular and fragile destinations and the people who live there.”

But that doesn’t mean traveling should be off-limits. Francis, Benton, and others believe that travel can benefit a destination and even help inspire people to address the climate crisis, but that does mean how we think about travel will likely need to change.

“When thinking about travel, I do think of carbon,” Clare Flaherty, a 17-year-old lives in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and ambassador at The Climate Initiative. “However, I do believe there is a balance. We can fully experience visiting new places and not only lessen our impact or carbon footprint but make a positive change.”