Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism: Carbon Mitigation by Environmentally Certified Tourism Enterprises

Abstract

Tourism is susceptible to the impacts of climate change on destinations and businesses, but also contributes to the causes of climate change via greenhouse gas emissions from travel. This article reports on carbon mitigation actions by environmentally certified tourism enterprises in Queensland, Australia. The survey results profile attitudes to climate change, emissions auditing, carbon mitigation actions, and motives for emissions reduction. The study revealed that most operators believed climate change was an important issue for tourism and had implemented a range of carbon mitigation actions in energy, water, and waste reduction. The most popular actions were energy efficiency and reducing energy use, while less popular measures were adopting renewable energy and carbon offsetting. Tourism operators preferred lower cost actions that were easy to implement and would provide cost savings. The key motives for tourism operators implementing these carbon actions related to ecological responsibility and business competitiveness via cost savings and differentiating their business as “climate friendly.” These motivations align with general business principles driving the implementation of socially and environmentally responsible practices by companies. The findings suggest that environmentally certified tourism enterprises now consider emissions reduction measures to be an integral part of sustainable tourism development.