With the COP30 Climate Summit underway in Belém, Brazil, the Travel Foundation has published a new report outlining a global action agenda for tourism’s climate transition. It outlines four practical, interconnected ideas that would allow tourism to course-correct, at the scale and pace needed, towards climate resilience, economic viability, and social equity for destinations worldwide.
The Where Next? Action Agenda is the result of a global consultation involving more than 100 tourism stakeholders across governments, businesses, academia, and civil society. It sets the stage for a five-year programme (2026–2030) to implement system-level change across the sector.
The new report highlights how destinations now face mounting costs, deteriorating assets and growing uncertainty from climate change. Many risk losing the very foundations their visitor economies depend on. Incremental initiatives have helped, but tourism now needs system-level change that reshapes incentives, governance and investment so resilience, fairness and community benefit become the norm.
“The climate crisis is already reshaping tourism, the question is whether we react piecemeal or take deliberate, coordinated action,” said Jeremy Sampson, CEO of the Travel Foundation. “This agenda is an invitation to build a more viable and fairer future for tourism, and the ideas are both ambitious and achievable. But we can’t do it alone: we need partners ready to lead.”
Four Big Ideas to power tourism’s climate transition
The Action Agenda proposes four connected initiatives that can be built and scaled through collaboration:
- Understand the risks – with a Destination Climate Risk Register. A shared, open-source system that translates climate science into decision-ready risk profiles for destinations, guiding investment, insurance, and policy where they are needed most.
- Mobilise the money – through a Tourism Resilience Fund. A connected set of funds, backed by climate-aligned banks and corporate deposits, that channel fair, transparent finance into climate resilience for tourism-dependent communities.
- Build the capacity – with a Tourism Transition Facility. A global support facility that helps destinations, SMEs, workers, and institutions to design and deliver just transition plans, turning risk data and finance into real-world change.
- Require a fair deal for communities – with Equity-based KPIs and Standards. A Tourism Equity Index and core set of KPIs and standards to ensure all major tourism investments demonstrate community consent and deliver tangible local benefits, protecting tourism’s social licence to operate.
Together, these ideas form a step-by-step approach: understand where tourism is most at risk, direct resources effectively, strengthen institutional capacity, and ensure fairness is built in.
Next step: co-creating a Global Action Agenda (2026–2030)
The Travel Foundation is now inviting organisations to join as Contributing Partners in co-developing and delivering a five-year action plan, including a portfolio of regional pilots and partnerships.
The campaign has already attracted wide-ranging support from across the sector, including from destination authorities, tour operators and accommodation providers. Early contributors include Cuidadores de Destinos, FINN Partners, Preferred Travel Group and Beyond Green (Accommodation Sector Lead), The Travel Corporation (Tour Operator Sector Lead), and Canary Islands Tourism (Destination Sector Lead).
The Where Next? Agenda will be presented on Thursday 20 November during the Global Online Sessions on Climate Action in Tourism (register for free here), co-hosted by the Travel Foundation and Travalyst in collaboration with UN Tourism, as part of COP30’s Tourism Thematic Days.
The full report, Where Next? A Global Action Agenda for Tourism’s Climate Transition, is free to download from the Travel Foundation’s website, and you can also register your interest to support or partner.
