Goa, going, gone: Asia tourism faces climate chaos

By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) - 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 percent of the Maldives' annual GDP of around $800 million.

But the Indian Ocean island chain, on average just 1.5 metres (five feet) above sea level, risks disappearing within generations if sea levels rise in line with the U.N. climate panel's predictions.

Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Brussels on Friday issued the bleakest U.N. warning yet about the impacts of global warming.

"Our entire tourism infrastructure is coastal-based," Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "If sea levels were to rise and destroy all our beaches, then obviously the main attraction is gone."

"We are reputed to be a diving destination ... What climate change will also do is raise the (sea) temperature, which will kill the reefs," he added.

Scientists say climate change could also devastate Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The tourism industry fears the natural wonder could badly damaged or even extinct in 40 years.

"If there's no reef, there's no tourism. So it is a concern," David Windsor, executive director of the Barrier Reef Tourism Operators Association, told Reuters.

"There has been significant bleaching of corals over the past few years, which is directly attributable to water getting warmer," he added.

The 2,300 km (1,400 miles) reef is Australia's top tourist drawcard, attracting 4.9 million visitors a year, generating about 60,000 jobs and more than A$5.4 billion ($4.5 billion) a year for the economy.

BYE, BYE BONDI?

Around Japan's Okinawa island it is a similar story.

"We hear from divers that there appears to be more and more bleaching each year," said Yasunori Toma of Okinawa government's Tourism Planning Department. The warmer waters have also triggered invasions of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.