Review of accounting for carbon dioxide emissions from tourism at different spatial scales

Abstract

Carbon dioxide emission from tourism, as a focus of man-land relationship in tourism industry in the 21st century, is a vital index reflecting its effect on environment change. The article summarizes the contents of carbon dioxide emissions from tourism at different scales such as world, nation, region and unit. These results indicate that: (1) the accounting of the carbon dioxide emissions from tourism began from global and national scales at the end of the last century, then to regional and basic scales. (2) The Carbon dioxide emissions from tourism are mainly from high-developed countries and regions in terms of space, from the minority high-spending tourists in terms of behavior, from high-speed vehicles, high-grade accommodations and high-level tourism activities in terms of tourism element. The carbon dioxide emissions per capita of developing countries and regions are less than one tenth in developed countries and regions. As for the proportion of total emission, tourism transportation accounts for the largest, generally more than 65%, followed by accommodation, and the last is tourism activity. (3) Based on the systemic analysis of these coefficients of accounting carbon dioxide emissions in tourism, the paper indicates that there are progresses in the consistency of coefficients at global scale and diversity of coefficients at national, regional and unit scales, while the coefficients of developed countries and regions are higher than those of developing countries and regions. In addition, some recommendations including coefficients have given to China.