Challenges and Crossroads Towards Sustainability‐Oriented Tourism Facing Humanity and Its Relationship with Nature Throughout Contemporary History

The relationship between human beings and Nature has been marked, especially since the Industrial Revolution, by a growing imbalance, which translates, amongst other manifestations, into the destruction and unbridled consumption of resources, which have led to the disappearance of large patches of forest and habitats essential for the survival of many animal and plant species, and, at the same time, for the development of other biomes harmful to the survival of human societies. The successive intervention of human beings on ecosystems has potentiated the emergence of zoonoses of epidemic and pandemic dimensions, and History shows how the occurrence of these impacts has been increasingly frequent and how urgent it is to reflect on the unruly attitude of society towards Nature, especially in the context of climate change and Anthropocene discussion. The bubonic plague, cholera, and yellow fever, which were present in the nineteenth century, are clear examples of the effects of globalization on the spread of diseases, thus demonstrating the need for international cooperation to control and struggle against them. In the twentieth century, other examples such as malaria, the Spanish flu, SARS, MERS, and COVID-19, whose consequences we intend to analyse in more depth, translate into a double effect of global lack of responsibility for the protection of Nature. After all, history proves that human action can lead to the emergence and spread of diseases of epidemic proportions that end up affecting the lives of people and societies, at an economic, social and cultural level. Tourism was one of the activities most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Born at the end of the seventeenth century, with the Grand Tour, tourism has known, throughout its own history, fluctuations dictated by events of a different nature, namely political (e.g. the French Revolution), social, and health. Thus, with this work, having as theoretical basis elements collected in the history of health/disease and in the environmental history, it is intended to reflect on the effects of pandemics and climate change verified with greater incidence in recent years on human mobility, tourism and leisure activities, as well as underlining the importance of the thickness of history in a debate that we consider crucial and urgent to increase public awareness on a global scale.