Check conscience before boarding

Flying has become commonplace for millions of people, but a new book points out the devastating consequences of mass tourism, writes Rosita Boland

Last year, the world's aviation industry carried over two billion passengers, as recorded by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. This was the highest annual figure to date. When you consider that one in 11 people worldwide is employed in tourism, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, it's clear that many of these flights are leisure-related. Collectively, it adds up to a worryingly large, and ever increasing carbon footprint.

Leo Hickman (35), who lives near Bodmin in Cornwall, is a journalist and writer who writes about ethical living for the Guardian. His latest book, The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of Our Holidays, is an excellent and thoroughly compelling analysis of flight-related tourism. In the book, Hickman examines a range of international destinations that have become increasingly popular with tourists in recent years. At each destination, he interviews people involved in several levels of the trade - including bar and hotel owners, prostitutes, chambermaids, guides, construction workers, politicians, policy makers, and environmentalists - as he attempts to investigate how much of the money generated by tourism actually benefits the area and the local people. He also examines the cost to the environment of heavily touristed areas.

Among the places to which he travelled in the course of his year-long research were: Dubai, shopping destination and home to staggeringly ambitious hotel and holiday home developments on reclaimed land; the Mexican beach resort of Cancún; Tallinn, one of Europe's most popular stag and hen party destinations; Benidorm, where the concept of package holidays was first developed; and an eco-tourism hotel in Costa Rica. In addition, Hickman spent time on the world's largest passenger ship, the Caribbean-based Freedom of the Seas, which carries almost 6,000 people and is 70 metres longer than the Titanic; he also went to Pattaya in Thailand, which is notorious for its sex tourism, and Ibiza, famous for its clubbing culture.

So can tourism ever be ethical if it involves moving large numbers of people around the world? "That's one of the hardest questions of all to answer," Hickman admits by phone from his home in Cornwall. "It's much easier to make changes in niche destinations, or within niche tourism, such as eco-tourism. The only real changes that will make a difference are to mass tourism destinations. By that I mean places like Disneyland, Cancún and Benidorm, which handle huge numbers of people every year. The tourism industry needs to be focusing most of its efforts on those kinds of places, since they are where most people go."

In his year-long travels, what surprised him was how important an issue water is. "I was expecting water to be an issue to a certain degree, but it was the same story everywhere." Apart from the waste created by plastic bottles of drinking water, the demand for water from heavily developed resorts, with their en-suite bathrooms, particularly those that are newly built, frequently outstrips supply and lowers the water table.

The trend for golf courses, which Hickman found to be more or less internationally de rigueur in the planning of new developments - even in the award-winning eco resort he visited in Costa Rica - is also taking its toll, as such courses need huge amounts of water.

In the 21st century, people holiday abroad for much more diverse social reasons than 20 years ago. The traditional annual family sun holiday is no longer the standard. Shopping trips to Dubai and New York are now commonplace, as are city breaks all over Europe. Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, Budapest and Tallinn have all become destinations for stag- and hen-party weekends. The well-heeled British man, according to Hickman, now flies with friends to places as far away as Dubai, Las Vegas and Cancún for his stag party. Keen skiers take a couple of trips a year to the slopes. And sex tourists travel in increasing numbers to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and some African states, as well as to long-established destinations, such as Thailand.

ALL OF THIS, HICKMAN points out, carries consequences both for the environment and for the local community. For example, so great is the increased demand for skiing holidays in Switzerland and Austria that covers are being placed on glaciers in the summer to stop them melting. In 2002, a special Italian police force was set up to investigate the theft of snow from glaciers. The snowfall was so poor that year that thieves were reportedly being paid €900 by ski resorts to deliver illegally removed truckfuls of snow.

There are now so many people arriving at the slopes who still want to ski, even when snowfalls are light and late, as in recent years, that the use of snow-cannons in the Alps is now common. This process uses vast amounts of both water and energy. Mountain Wilderness, a French conservation group, estimates that to cover one hectare in the Alps with artificial snow for a season takes 25,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the UN's tourism division, is strongly in favour of promoting tourism in developing countries because it believes it leads to "prosperity and peace". Hickman found little evidence of either in places such as Pattaya, Cancún, or Dubai, where prostitutes, poorly paid chambermaids and exploited construction workers told him their stories of contributing to the local tourist-driven economy.

However, the real kick in this book is the last two chapters, which focus solely on the aviation industry. Virtually every international holiday these days starts at an airport. The aviation industry and the tourist have developed an alarmingly symbiotic relationship, which, at its present projected growth, is potentially lethal for the future of the environment. Ever-cheaper flights and open skies have contributed to a middle-class culture of what Hickman calls "impulse flying." It's not only the existing middle-classes who have to be factored into any future planning for the aviation industry, it's also the developing middle-classes in countries such as China, South Korea, India and Russia. It is predicted that by 2020 China alone will have 100 million outbound tourists annually.

"Flying is a very hard habit to break," Hickman admits. "Ethics are fine if you can afford to pay the prices that usually come with them, such as buying organic food. We've become very savvy consumers, but it's a very rare example where the cheapest thing - such as a rock-bottom package holiday - doesn't have an inverse impact somewhere. Deep down, we know the cheapest is not the best, especially when it comes to flying. Tourism is a pretty blunt and heavy-handed implement. It's hardly ever a win-win situation."

The aviation industry is keen to promote the notion of social equality and inclusiveness when it comes to flying. It argues that making flying more expensive would most hurt those who can least afford it. "It's a line they like to put out, but the fact is it's the middle classes who fly most frequently and it's with them that the most responsibility lies," says Hickman.

LAST YEAR, THE Environmental Change Institute, which is based at the University of Oxford, published a survey on the increased numbers of people taking flights from British airports, in which it focused on their socio-economic background. "Much of the recent expansion in flying has occurred because better-off people are flying more often. There is little evidence that those on low incomes are flying more; flying cannot be regarded as a socially inclusive activity," the report concluded.

"We're in an era of cheap flying and it's going to be a mighty big ask for people who fly often to have the willpower to reduce their flying," says Hickman. "But neither can we turn around and tell developing countries that they can't have what we had either. There won't be no flights for pleasure in the future, but there will have to be a reduction in our flying patterns."

The aviation industry does not pay duty or VAT on fuel, due to long-standing centralised agreements. However, airlines do pay a varying fee to fly though other countries' airspace. As a result, they often zig-zag to their destinations, via a less direct route, since they can avoid certain payments in this way. Since the zig-zag routes are less direct, aircraft burn more fuel in the process. Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation, has said that an emission reduction of between six and 12 per cent could be achieved overnight if Europe changed to a "single skies" air-navigation system.

As Hickman points out, it's in the aviation industry's own interest to try and reduce emission and fuel burn, since that would result in lower fuel bills, which have become an increasingly high overhead for many airlines. There are, Hickman argues, many other things that the aviation industry could be doing to fly more responsibly. Planes should not take off unless near capacity. Some airports are now towing their planes out from their stands to the runways instead of powering up the engines early. Virgin started doing this in December at Heathrow and Gatwick, with their 747s and 400s, claiming that this was saving up to two tonnes of fuel per flight.

The Final Call deserves to be read by those of us lucky enough to be able to fly on a regular basis. As Hickman points out, flying is not a necessity; it's a luxury. Only five per cent of the world's population have ever travelled by plane. Being an international tourist is a rare privilege, and Hickman's book is a sobering, thoughtful and intelligent reminder that it is a privilege we need to be forcefully reminded not to take for granted.

The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of Our Holidays, by Leo Hickman, is published by Guardian Books (Transworld) at £12.99

Have cash will travel

In May 1950, 40 people became the first package tourists to travel by air, flying from Gatwick to Corsica.

In 2005, aviation accounted for eight per cent of global oil usage, at 83 million barrels daily.

It's predicted that by 2020, China will have 100 million outbound tourists.

The number of passengers travelling with Ryanair is increasing annually by 20 per cent.

According to the UN's World Tourism Organisation, international tourist arrivals in 1971 numbered 170 million. In 2006, it was 840 million. By 2010, it is expected to pass the one-billion mark.