The Impact of Wildfires on Tourism
Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan
Wildfires pose a significant threat to the global tourism industry. In countries like Greece, we’ve seen local tourism industries decimated by the effects of wildfires, which have destroyed homes, livelihoods and tourism infrastructure in their paths.
The next few points will breakdown how wildfires can impact communities along with tips on how to prevent wildfires when you travel.
1. People Assume Every Surrounding Destination Is Risky
When news headlines constantly cover massive wildfires in specific towns and cities, many people assume it isn’t safe to travel to that state or country.
California is one of those places because it deals with wildfires yearly. Most recently, wildfires there reduced annual tourism income by 11% due to vacationers canceling trips. That’s equal to a $20 million loss to the state’s economy and residents. You can avoid making that loss greater by keeping your trip on the calendar and brushing up on fire safety tips.
Check drought conditions before picking a vacation destination and douse your campfire after using it. Minor steps like these will keep you safe and help residents and businesses benefit from your vacation spending.
2. Fires Destroy Tourist Town Economies
Wildfires also devastate tourist towns with only one draw for out-of-state visitors. When the Glass Fire erupted in 2020, Napa and Sonoma counties lost many of the wineries that were the primary source of income for the residents. The fire destroyed over 67,000 acres of wineries, including wine storage, tasting rooms, and family homes.
These family-owned businesses struggled to recover while the entire county suffered from the economic loss. Annual wildfires result in defunded school systems, public transportation, and emergency services that rely on tax revenue.
Minimal efforts like keeping your vehicle off dry grass due to exhaust heating to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit will significantly prevent any sparks. Keeping those tips in mind while vacationing in a drought-prone area is essential.
3. Wildfires End Family-Owned Businesses and Lives
Tourist attractions owned by mega-corporations can rebuild quickly, but wildfires may permanently keep family-owned businesses from ever reopening. Smaller companies like petting zoos and animal shelters often never reopen.
Part of the problem is safely evacuating and relocating the animals. In 2019, racehorses in San Diego county ended up wandering the streets because the owners had to flee without enough warning time to transport them. Animals also often die when owners leave them behind to save themselves after winds shift and wildfires suddenly turn to their businesses, farms, and homes.
Tourist safety tips like putting cigarettes out in a cup of water go a long way in maintaining generational income through family businesses and keeping living beings safe from wildfires.
4. Nearby Tourists Have to Leave Too
Even if a wildfire isn’t approaching a popular tourist destination, the traveling smoke will still impact the health of everyone in the vicinity of a fire and cause evacuations. You might think people can just stay indoors when smoke drifts through an area, but that doesn’t always work either. Smoke particles pass through HVAC systems and enter homes or hotel rooms, hurting residents and tourists near massive fires.
Affected areas around wildfires then lose additional tourist revenue, causing economic downfall, job loss, and possible business closures. It makes clearing a 10-foot to 25-foot area around campfires or tiki torches seem much less troublesome when you think about the impact of wildfires on tourism.
5. Fires Make Hotel Rooms More Expensive
Residents displaced by wildfires often live long-term in nearby hotels while waiting for home repairs or replacement. In addition to the fires removing rental home possibilities by burning down residential structures, they also make available hotel rooms more scarce to tourists due to locals living in them.
Prices for those rooms increase as their supply dwindles. Visitors won’t be able to vacation in that area if there’s no place to stay, causing economic loss that slows any town’s wildfire recovery. Four Oregon hotels recently had to pay a $105,600 fine due to price gouging of hotel rooms as wildfire victims needed places to live.
This type of justice doesn’t always come quickly, though, so tourists should take wildfire precautions. Everyone will have a safe, affordable place to live or reside during vacations.
6. Companies Avoid Investing in Fire-Prone Areas
Companies don’t want to build headquarters, attractions, and tourist activities if an area has too much of a fire risk. Local economies struggle to grow without their investment and available jobs remain limited. Tourism won’t begin or expand in those towns because vacationers don’t see corporations running national ad campaigns for those destinations.
When you travel to a drought-prone area and decide to celebrate a holiday with fireworks, remember that one spark in the wrong place could limit residents’ economic mobility for years to come. Celebrating differently is an easy way to keep your tourist activities from harming the town or state.
Learn About the Impact of Wildfires
Do your research before you travel to a destination and remember to take any necessary precautions. Anyone can prevent wildfires by practicing fire safety tips like these and researching the weather conditions in an area before leaving home.
Sea Going Green is a sustainable tourism consultancy based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands working with clients in the tourism industry to develop and support the implementation of sustainability policies to prevent environmental harm.