Abstract
Climate change is a key issue in sustainable tourism, both in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the tourism sector and the potential impacts of climate change on tourism-dependent regions. Low-carbon tourism is an emerging paradigm based around emissions reduction by tourism businesses, as well as broader values of adaptation, transition and behavioral change. This article presents the results of a low-carbon tourism case study in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, where the Low-Carbon Living Program has successfully designed and implemented a low-carbon rating and certification scheme. This scheme covers emissions related to energy, waste and water and is based on regionally-specific data. The program has also succeeded in its aim of using the tourism industry as a catalyst for broader community action, having been expanded to schools and retailers in the case study region. A transferable regional model has been developed that is being adapted for use in new regions under a modular and decentralised program structure. However, questions remain around the impact of the program on participants’ carbon footprints and customer levels over time, as well as the suitability of a common scorecard system to diverse participant types.
Highlights
In recent decades, sustainability has become a critical consideration for tourismdependent regions around the world [1]
The pilot phase of this program involved the development of a certification scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which we evaluate for its potential to balance the competing goals of competition and collaboration in advancing low-carbon tourism within a tourism-dependent region and to serve as an adaptable model for extension to other tourism-dependent regions
Reports were provided to each business that included a carbon footprint calculation, discussion of previous actions that had been undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recommendations for future actions
Summary
Sustainability has become a critical consideration for tourismdependent regions around the world [1]. One key marketing response to the challenge of sustainable tourism has been the emergence of eco-certification schemes, with more than 100 such schemes emerging over the past 30 years [3]. While climate change is a key issue for tourism, it can often be overlooked in tourism policy. Other challenges include uncertainty around how the tourism industry is likely to respond to climate change policy [6] and a lack of user-friendly tools for tourists to estimate the greenhouse gas impacts of their travel decisions [15]. Eco-certification with a strong focus on greenhouse gas emissions has the potential to address both of these challenges by reducing the reliance on government policy to drive low-carbon action in the tourism sector and providing potential tourists with credible information on the low-carbon credentials of tourism offerings in a user-friendly format
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