But stunt it is, because, as her many critics would argue, £4m carbon-fibre racing yachts are not a method of transport most of us wishing to head to the States can choose. To achieve the near-immediate elimination of carbon emissions Ms Thunberg and protest organisations such as Extinction Rebellion want the only real solution would be for most of us to stop travelling altogether. Given humanity’s ever-irrepressible desire to explore, they are fighting a losing battle – and a potentially economically catastrophic one at that. According to figures from the World Travel and Tourism council, the global travel industry grew 3.9 per cent last year to be worth $8.8 trillion, creating 319m jobs and accounting for over a tenth of global GDP. Air passenger journeys taken in 2018 climbed nearly 7 per cent to 4.4bn, the highest level on record, set to be topped again in 2019. Mankind just won’t sit still.
None of this is to say that travellers aren’t starting to think more deeply about the environmental cost of their holidaymaking. Demand for socially-responsible travel is rising, among millennial holidaymakers in particular, and airlines and tour operators are making increasingly loud public commitments to reduce the impact of their industry – although having made it onto the EU Transport & Environment group’s top 10 polluters list, Ryanair’s claim to be Europe’s greenest airline stretches the imagination somewhat. That said, commercial airliners today are twice as fuel efficient as they were 50 years ago and, as we explore in this week’s cover feature, Boeing and Airbus are making huge investments in the next generation of clean aircraft – possibly one day even electrically powered ones.
Yet despite near-constant growth, one thing that has not proved especially sustainable when it comes to the travel industry has been profits – whether the result of the expensive engineering troubles seen at Boeing and Rolls-Royce, or an inability to cope with the fierce competition unlocked by the internet, of which Thomas Cook is the latest victim (its rescue financing will all but wipe out shareholders). You will find one surprising exception, however, on page 36 of this magazine: WH Smith, whose travel business is still driving the group’s profits and share price higher. Travellers, it seems, will always pay anything for chocolate.
