Coincidence often isn't. Even when my iTunes nails a perfect segue.
This is National Travel & Tourism Week; a time when the Destination Marketing sector celebrates the impact the Visitor Economy has on our communities. Coincidence that someone posts the unfortunate image to the left this week? Doubtful.
But, that Kansas City Photo? It's a fake. It's been digitally altered as this article clearly identifies.
Unfortunately, like a trial lawyer that says something incendiary, knowing full well the objection will be sustained, the jury can never unhear it. Unfortunately for our friends at Visit KC, most will never unsee this.
Of course, that's nothing to the sensationally not-coincidental timing of the release of a research study that claims that the carbon footprint of Tourism is 4x worse for the planet than previously believed. I can't say that this new analysis from researchers from the University of Sydney and Taiwan's Cheng Kung University is flawed, because I haven't seen it. The premise certainly makes sense...but, so have studies promoted by previously prestigious institutions like the Brookings Institute.
That this paper was accepted by Nature Climate Change in March and held for publication on this of all weeks makes me want to delve deeper before I accept this as science. You should too. It seems too perfectly timed.
But, be prepared for this study to be used as a challenge to the vital work that Destination Marketers do.
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