New Report from JetBlue and The Nature Conservancy Uses AI Technology to Evaluate the Impact of Natural Resources on Tourism
January 15 2019 - 11:30AM
Business Wire
-- Results Show the Caribbean Depends on
Tourism, Which Relies Heavily on Healthy Coral Reefs --
-- JetBlue is Donating 50 Flights to The Nature
Conservancy for Scientists to Travel to the Caribbean to Further
Research and Help Conserve Coral Reefs --
JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU), along with The Nature Conservancy, whose
mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life
depends, today released a new report focusing on the connection
between natural resources and tourism. The report’s results
revealed that the Caribbean is more dependent on tourism than any
other region across the globe and highlights new data on the
benefits that coral reefs provide to the travel industry and the
region’s economy.
Coral reef health is diminishing from impacts such as pollution
and climate change. This report, also supported by Microsoft and
the World Travel & Tourism Council, utilized machine learning
and artificial intelligence to quantify the significant value that
reefs contribute to the Caribbean economy through reef-adjacent
activities, such as sailing, diving and snorkeling, and the direct
connection on tourism. The value of reef-associated tourism is
estimated at more than $7.9 billion annually from over 11 million
visitors. This accounts for 23 percent of all tourism spending and
is equivalent to more than 10 percent of the region’s gross
domestic product.
This marks the second study funded by JetBlue to measure
Caribbean ecosystems and correlate it to travel industry
revenue. “Estimating Reef-Adjacent Tourism Value in the
Caribbean” follows 2015’s “EcoEarnings: A Shore Thing.” The
updated report analyzes the component of the travel sector that
depends on coral reefs but does not make direct use of them in the
way that diving or snorkeling does. Reef-adjacent tourism value
comes from beach activities, coastal views, delicious seafood and
tranquil waters for swimming and boating—many of the reasons people
flock to the Caribbean. The new report can be found here.
“The Caribbean and Latin America account for one-third of
JetBlue’s flying. The health and long-term growth of this region is
directly tied to our bottom line,” said Sophia Mendelsohn, head of
sustainability and environmental, social governance, JetBlue. “This
study proves the relationship between healthy coral reefs and
tourism, and the overall financial stability of the Caribbean. It’s
time for conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy and
the tourism industry to work together on solutions to conserve the
region’s resources.”
“Scientific evidence shows that living corals in the Caribbean
have declined over 60% in just the last three decades alone. The
Nature Conservancy is currently deploying innovative solutions to
protect and restore coral reefs throughout the region; we must
however move faster to outpace the current rate of degradation and
increasing threats to coral reefs” commented Dr. Luis Solórzano,
Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean.
“Millions of people in the Caribbean depend on coral reefs as a
source of livelihood, and the region is known as paradise to so
many travelers from around the globe. It is ours our responsibility
to protect the natural wonders, like coral reefs, that sustain both
the Caribbean economy and tourism alike.”
The methodology for this study was derived from one of the most
prevalent ways people communicate today – social media. Social
content was analyzed using Microsoft’s machine learning. More than
86,000 social images and nearly 6.7 million text posts were studied
for identifiers that indicated reef-adjacent activities. The social
media metrics were layered with traditionally sourced data from
government agencies and the tourism industry, such as surveys from
visitor centers, sales figures reported by travel-associated
businesses and economic data from government accounting
systems.
“A more sustainable future depends upon our ability to better
model, monitor and manage natural resources like coral reefs, and
that will require human ingenuity paired with AI,” said Dr. Lucas
Joppa, chief environmental officer at Microsoft. “For this report,
Azure Cognitive Services helped accurately identify coral reef
images throughout the Caribbean that were already available on the
internet so they could then be used in a tourism-based economic
valuation model. We’re proud to continue our work with The Nature
Conservancy to enhance conservation planning and economic modeling
with the power of Azure and AI for Earth.”
Other key findings of this study that directly impact JetBlue
and Caribbean tourism include:
- The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico,
where JetBlue is the largest airline to both islands, benefit from
tourist spending of more than $1 billion per year. This tourism
revenue is directly linked to reefs.
- The Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Puerto
Rico receive more than one million visitors per year whose visits
are directly linked to coral reefs.
- The top 10 percent highest-value reef
areas each generate more than $5.7 million and 7,000 visitors per
square kilometer per year. These reefs are scattered in almost
every country and territory in the region and have a large
proportion of high-value reefs, each with an average spend value
equal to over $3 million per square kilometer per year.
- The countries most dependent on
reef-adjacent tourism include many small island nations and JetBlue
destinations, like Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda and St. Maarten,
where there may be relatively few alternative sources of income
outside of reef-associated tourism.
- Only 35 percent of Caribbean reefs are
positioned where they do not draw revenue for the region’s tourism
sector, indicating that there are little to no options to expand
reef-associated activities to new areas. Most of the reefs not used
for tourism are in remote locations.
The potential impacts to tourism in the Caribbean include
climate change and other threats to coral reefs, like overfishing,
pollution and coastal development. As tourism is an essential
pillar of all Caribbean economies, depletion of natural resources
could lead to economic and social risks. With 65 percent of the
Caribbean’s reefs generating tourism dollars, the results reveal an
opportunity for tourism-associated businesses — including cruise
lines, airlines, and hotels to work together and continue to invest
in protecting the region’s environmental health.
As a follow-up to this study, JetBlue is donating 50 flights to
The Nature Conservancy for scientists to travel to the region to
further research and help conserve coral reefs. JetBlue depends on
natural resources and a healthy environment to keep its business
running smoothly. Natural resources are essential for the airline
to fly and tourism relies on having beautiful, natural and
preserved destinations for customers to visit. The airline focuses
on issues that have the potential to impact its business.
Customers, crewmembers and community are key to JetBlue's
sustainability strategy. Demand from these groups for responsible
operations is one of the motivations behind the airline’s efforts
to reduce its environmental impact.
About JetBlue
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading
carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los
Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries
more than 40 million customers a year to 100+ cities in the
U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average
of 1,000 daily flights. For more information please visit
jetblue.com.
About The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization
dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life
depends. Guided by science, we create innovative, on-the-ground
solutions to our world's toughest challenges so that nature and
people can thrive together. We are tackling climate change,
conserving lands, waters and oceans at an unprecedented scale,
providing food and water sustainably and helping make cities more
sustainable. Working in 72 countries, we use a collaborative
approach that engages local communities, governments, the private
sector, and other partners. To learn more,
visit www.nature.org or follow @nature_press on
Twitter.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190115005650/en/
Media:JetBlue Corporate Communications+1
718-709-3089corpcomm@jetblue.com
The Nature ConservancyJessica
Wiseman201-841-2922Jessica.wiseman@tnc.org
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