Tourism Carbon Footprint Research Articles

An Assessment of Promoting Culinary Tourism in Ghana

Purpose: Ghana's tourism and hospitality industry has been extensively researched over the past five decades, primarily focusing on culture and heritage tourism, nature and economic tourism, marketing, and service quality. The aim is to assess the potential of culinary tourism as a powerful tool for creating sustainable livelihood empowerment channels, offering a beacon of hope for the future. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted with a rigorous qualitative research design and desk review approach, ensuring a comprehensive topic exploration. Published data and literature on the food tourism prospects of eight regions in Ghana were analysed. The gathered data was then subjected to content analysis, a common technique in qualitative research. Research Limitation: The findings derived from the desk review may not be generalisable to other contexts, populations, or geographic areas due to the reliance on specific literature that may not capture all perspectives. This acknowledgement ensures that the audience is fully informed about the scope of the study. Findings: The study exposes the stark reality that the culinary tourism market in Ghana, despite its significant potential, remains underdeveloped. This underscores the crucial need for strategic interventions and the active participation of all stakeholders in the industry's development. Practical Implication: From a practical point of view, the Ghana Tourism Authority must show greater interest in developing the sector by organising regional and national food festivals annually. This effort must be publicised internationally to attract tourists interested in exploring Ghana's culinary diversity. Social Implication: Culinary tourism promotes sustainable food production and consumption practices by emphasising local, seasonal, and environmentally friendly ingredients. This reduces tourism's carbon footprint and supports responsible consumption patterns. Originality/Value: This study has revealed a significant research gap with practical implications. Thus, narratives on the potential of culinary tourism across eight regions in Ghana have known to have been provided practical actions towards enhancing culinary tourism in Ghana.

Carbon Safety Assessment based on Tourism Carbon Footprint and Tourism Carbon Capacity Model in Gansu Province

Based on Carbon Footprint model, we calculated the tourism carbon footprint and tourism carbon capacity of Gansu Province in 2019 and 2020. The results indicate that: 1. Tourism carbon deficit is in 2019 and in 2020, which indicates a negative impact on ecosystem. 2.The number of tourists in 2020 is lower than 2019. Therefore, the tourism carbon footprint in 2020 was reduced compared to 2019. 3.From the information in this study, indicate the tourism industry in Gansu Province is unsustainable.

Developing a thriving domestic tourism sector in emerging economies: a horizon 2050 paper

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the development of a vibrant domestic tourism sector in emerging economies as a means of moving towards a more sustainable tourism sector and achieving many of the goals outlined in the UNWTO’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Design/methodology/approach It uses a perspective approach through a critical state-of-the-art review of selected domestic and international tourism studies. Findings This paper illustrates how developing such a sector will provide a range of economic and social benefits to emerging economies and their residents, as well as lowering the per-capita tourism carbon footprint of destination areas. Practical implications This study identifies policy initiatives that can be developed to help emerging economies transition from an international tourism focus to a more balanced focus. Social implications This study indicates the social benefits of developing a domestic tourism sector in emerging economies. Originality/value It equips national tourism organisations and small and medium tourism enterprises with specific actions for the use of tourism as a prosperity tool in the pursuance of these benefits. It, further, calls for a research agenda on investigating how emerging economies are uniquely progressing towards this global goal through thriving domestic tourism recognising that each economy is culturally different.

Research on the estimation and spatial pattern of net tourism carbon emissions in the Yellow River Basin from 2009 to 2019.

Based on panel data and remote sensing data of cities in the Yellow River Basin in China from 2009 to 2019, and using the tourism carbon footprint and tourism carbon carrying capacity models, the tourism carbon emissions, tourism carbon carrying capacity, and net tourism carbon of 65 cities in the Yellow River Basin were calculated. The balance and dynamic changes in carbon emissions and carbon fixation of urban tourism in the past ten years were compared. The results show that (1) tourism carbon emissions in the Yellow River Basin are generally on the rise, along with a distribution characteristic of downstream > middle reaches > upstream with obvious characteristics of urban agglomeration centrality within the basin; (2) the carbon carrying capacity of tourism is higher than that of tourism. The growth of carbon emissions is relatively slow, showing a spatial distribution pattern of high in the west and low in the east, which is mainly related to the geographical environment and economic development of the city; (3) the tourism carbon emissions and tourism carbon carrying capacity in the upstream areas can basically maintain a balance, but in the middle and lower reaches of the region, they show a carbon surplus. There is a significant positive spatial correlation in urban net tourism carbon emissions, and the clusters are mainly H-H and L-L.

Shanghai Tourism Carbon Footprint Measurement Based on Final Consumption and Suggestions for Improvement of Urban Tourism Facilities

As a major tourist city in China, Shanghai's tourism industry generates a great deal of carbon emissions. However, China is now actively practicing measures to reduce carbon emissions in order to protect the environment. Therefore, it is particularly important to measure Shanghai tourism carbon footprint. The results of this study can help characterize the carbon emission of Shanghai's tourist industry, so that the government can better improve Shanghai's tourism - based on its characteristics and reduce the carbon emissions in a more effective manner, which can better respond to the national and global low-carbon trend. This research utilizes the "from bottom to up" approach, collects data from Shanghai's tourism final consumption, measures the sub-industrys carbon footprint using the carbon emission coefficients, and then performs a superposition calculation to determine the characteristics of Shanghai's overall tourism and sub-industry carbon footprint, and the composition of carbon footprint in transportation. It shows following problems: the national environmental protection awareness has not yet been formed, and the tourism's related technologies and service facilities have not been able to guide tourists to reduce carbon emissions. In view of the characteristics and problems, this paper puts forward three suggestions, including the innovation of tourism-related technologies, the transformation of tourism service facilities and the enhancement of national low-carbon awareness.

Characteristics and drivers of changes in the carbon footprint of urban tourism in the post-COVID-19 era: A case study of Xi'an

COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control measures provide valuable social experimental opportunities for exploring the factors that affect changes in the urban tourism carbon footprint (TCFu). The study uses the carbon emission coefficient and energy consumption coefficient to calculate the TCFu of the transport, accommodation, catering, and recreational activity sectors, taking Xi'an from 2014 to 2020 as a case study. It analyzes the characteristics of the carbon footprint changes and their drivers in each sector. The results show that compared to before the outbreak of the pandemic, in the period afterwards, the TCFu decreased by 60.46%. The carbon footprint of tourism transport decreased the most. Carbon intensity has a significant inhibitory effect on the TCFu growth, and as drivers, the consumption level and population size shifted from promoting to inhibiting the TCFu. It emphasizes the importance of developing low-carbon tourism transportation to reduce the TCFu, providing a scientific basis for promoting the green transformation of urban tourism.

The impact mechanism of all-for-one tourism on carbon emissions in China

As the country with the second highest tourism carbon footprint, the impact of tourism on carbon emissions may become one of the determinants for achieving China’s reduction commitments in 2030 (60%-65%). And the development of all-for-one tourism, which refers to the integration of resources and industries, provides more opportunities and challenges. Hence, this paper constructs the index system of all-for-one tourism and studies impact mechanism of all-for-one tourism on carbon emissions in China. The key findings show that: The development of all-for-one tourism includes industrial domain, spatial domain and integrated domain. Each domain has heterogeneity effect on carbon emissions. And the impacts of all-for-one tourism on carbon emissions are mainly through the population agglomeration and industrial structure.

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Tourism Life Cycle: The Case of Guilin from 2011 to 2022

Low-carbon tourism is an important way for the tourism industry to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In order to promote the development of Guilin as a world-class tourism city and ensure the sustainable development of the tourism industry in Guilin, this paper combines the concept of carbon footprint and the theory of life cycle to build a tourists’ carbon footprint life cycle analysis model of Guilin. Taking tourists in Guilin as an example, the composition and changes of tourists’ carbon footprint are dynamically analyzed. The research shows that: (1) The overall tourism carbon footprint of Guilin showed an upward trend during 2011–2019. From 2020 to 2022, due to the impact of COVID-19, Guilin’s tourism carbon footprint has decreased significantly. The per capita carbon footprint of tourism in Guilin showed a downward trend from 2011 to 2022; (2) The order of the size of Guilin’s tourism carbon footprint is tourism transportation > tourism catering > tourism accommodation > tourism activities; (3) From 2011 to 2022, the carbon footprint of tourism transportation in Guilin showed an obvious narrowing state, while the carbon footprint of tourism accommodation, tourism activities, and tourism catering showed an obvious expanding trend. Based on the characteristics of the carbon footprint of Guilin’s tourism and the current situation of the development of Guilin’s tourism, this paper puts forward suggestions on reducing carbon emissions, forms a new tool for evaluating and constructing low-carbon tourism, and provides a scientific basis and practical reference significance for the sustainable development of low-carbon tourism in Guilin.

Carbon Footprint and Its Composition: A Comparison between Domestic and International Tourists to Chenzhou City, China

This study aims to provide a scientific basis to address the strategies for sustainable development of urban tourism industry. By using the Life Cycle Assessment method, it decomposes tourism activities into seven different functional units (different tourism activities)-transportation, catering, accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, entertainment and waste disposal-based on the expression of services provided by tourism activities, and determine the boundary range of each different functional unit in terms of the pathways and the functional orientation of the products (resources and energy) provided by the services of each functional unit. A “bottom-up” model is then constructed to measure the carbon footprint of tourism. Based on data collected from various sources for the period 2014–2019, it compares the composition and differences of domestic and international tourists’ carbon footprints in Chenzhou City, one of inland mountainous regions of central China, through several steps, including target and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact evaluation and life cycle interpretation. Results show that domestic tourists contributed more than 90% of the total annual carbon footprints to the city, ranging from 76.8809 × 106 kg to 194.6067 × 106 kg. Transportation is the dominant category, accounting for over 80% of the total carbon footprints. The study suggests that optimizing tourism resources, reducing transportation distances, and switching to low-carbon modes can effectively reduce the tourism carbon footprints in Chenzhou and similar regions. This study reveals the structural characteristics of the tourism carbon footprint and its influencing factors and provides valuable insights for policy development involving energy saving and low carbon tourism, thus enhancing the long-term sustainability of tourism development in an urban tourism destination like Chenzhou.

Research hotspots, future trends and influencing factors of tourism carbon footprint: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT To comprehensively analyze the current research status, hot trends, and influencing factors of tourism carbon footprint, this paper conducts a bibliometric analysis. We find that (1) tourism carbon footprint is the topic with the highest attention in the field of tourism footprint research; (2) economic effects, tourism carbon footprint accounting methods, and the consciousness drive of each subject in the tourism industry are still important research directions; (3) tourism activity items such as accommodation and transportation are the main influencing factors while the behavioral preferences and characteristics of tourists, government and tourism operators become important directions for future empirical research.

Where Have Carbon Emissions Gone? Evidence of Inbound Tourism in China

Tourism is emerging as an important contributor sector to carbon emissions. As inbound tourism is the main component of tourism activities, measuring and evaluating the carbon footprint of inbound tourism can help achieve low-carbon development of the global tourism industry. Based on the carbon footprint theory, this study describes the distribution and transfer path of China’s inbound tourism carbon footprint by using the China multi regional input-output model embedded in the inbound tourism satellite account. The results reveal that embodied carbon emissions (ECE) of inbound tourism is higher than direct carbon emissions, and carbon emissions intensity is close to the average economic. Therefore, it is difficult for inbound tourism to achieve the dual goals of stimulating economic growth and emission mitigation. The ECE of inbound tourism has obvious inter-provincial transfer characteristics. Inner Mongolia and Guangdong are the largest provinces with net outflows/inflows of ECE, with net outflows of 1.47 million tons and inflows of 2.66 million tons. Besides, the ECE mainly flows from the northeast and northwest regions to the southern and eastern regions. From the perspective of industry transfer, 72.2% of ECE of inbound tourism comes from the power sector.

Estimation of tourism carbon footprint and carbon capacity

Abstract The calculation of tourism carbon footprint is of great significance to low-carbon tourism. This study estimates the tourism carbon footprint in Heilongjiang Province from 2009 to 2018 by using tourism carbon footprint and tourism carbon capacity models. The results show that the total tourism carbon footprint of Heilongjiang Province increased fast to 2.97 times from 5.926million tons in 2009 to 21.13million tons in 2018, while its per capita tourism carbon footprint increased from 53.9 kg to 116.0 kg. During the same period, tourism carbon capacity continued to grow steadily from 15.18billion tons to 21.96billion tons, and the growth rate was 50% of the growth rate of tourism carbon footprint. Tourism carbon emissions can be absorbed by environmental capacity, and the risk of carbon deficit is relatively small.

Temporal and Spatial Characteristics and Evolution of China's Inbound Tourism Carbon Footprint

Reducing carbon emissions and transitioning to a low-carbon economy are important propositions for human sustainability. Since it is closely related with high carbon emissions, international travel makes a substantial contribution to the global carbon emissions. To comprehensively explore the influence of international travel on carbon emissions and develop a sustainable development plan, this paper studies the temporal and spatial distribution and evolution of the carbon footprint of inbound tourism in China's 30 provinces between 2007 and 2017. In this study, comprehensive calculations and spatial models are adopted to reveal the temporal and spatial characteristics. The results show that the carbon footprint of inbound tourism in China has been increasing continuously from 2007 to 2017. While the carbon footprint increased by 1.94-fold, from 5.623 million tons to 10.8809 million tons, it presented obvious fluctuations by initially increasing rapidly and then dropping slightly. From the perspective of the contributions of various tourism components on the carbon footprint, transportation and post and telecommunications account for the largest proportions. In the past ten years, the variations in the carbon footprint of inbound tourism in most provinces and cities in China were not very extreme, but maintained a relatively stable state. In the spatial dimension, the carbon footprint of China's inbound tourism tends to decrease from the southeast to the northwest. The highest coefficient of variation is in Ningxia and the lowest is in Liaoning. Based on these results, recommendations are put forward for sustainable development plans in some major cities and provinces for the future.

Overcoming information asymmetry in tourism carbon management: The application of a new reporting architecture to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Responding to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate commitments are urgent priorities facing many governments. Meeting these commitments will require new industry management architectures that align measures of progress (economic, environmental, human and social) with government structures, datasets, and reporting. Comprehensive emissions quantification and reduction targets for tourism must be a part of this new architecture. In this paper we propose a comprehensive Tourism Carbon Information System (TCIS), comprising four essential information components: national tourism carbon footprint, the carbon-economic linkage, drivers and decarbonization progress, and benchmarking. The TCIS is then tested and applied to Aotearoa New Zealand (2007–2013) to track tourism carbon performance and its decarbonization speed, compared to the national average across sectors. This critical information sheds light on future growth in tourism relative to the national greenhouse gas inventory and establishes the required mitigation trajectory for destinations to move onto a sustainable emissions pathway.

Tourism carbon footprint inventories: A review of the environmentally extended input-output approach

Environmentally extended input-output models have emerged as a new macro level approach to compile tourism carbon footprint inventories. Set against the traditional bottom-up method, this paper explains how environmentally extended input-output models can assist to address multiple aspects of tourism carbon management, and to review current applications for the system boundary issue, identifying variations due to carbon footprint definition, data, and the economic model itself. Recommendations are made on improving consistency of application through the tourism satellite account framework and the treatment of embedded emissions of imports. Last, we propose an agenda to integrate its procedure into national systems linking the sectoral carbon emissions of tourism with international climate commitments and progressing implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dynamic Study on Tourism Carbon Footprint and Carbon Carrying Capacity in Sichuan Province

Tourism carbon emission is one of the important factors affecting ecological environment. In order to clarify the trend and changing characteristics of tourism carbon emissions, academia has carried out quantitative research on tourism carbon footprint. Based on the theory of carbon footprint, this study analyzes the tourism carbon emissions in Sichuan Province from 2004 to 2018 through three indexes: tourism carbon footprint, carbon carrying capacity and net carbon footprint. The results show that the carbon footprint of tourism in Sichuan Province shows an increasing trend. During the fifteen years, it increases by 20.2 times from 427.59 million tons to 9505.95 million tons. The carbon carrying capacity of tourism is increasing year by year except in 2008. Sichuan Province was in a carbon surplus before 2012. The carbon carrying capacity is greater than the carbon footprint, which is friendly to the ecological environment. After 2012, Sichuan Province is in a state of carbon deficit, and the ecological pressure is increasing, which is not conducive to human survival.

Progress and Prospects for Tourism Footprint Research

The tourism footprint family comprises the tourism ecological footprint (TEF), the tourism carbon footprint (TCF) and the tourism water footprint (TWF). The tourism footprint represents an important tool for quantitatively assessing the impact of tourism activities on the ecosystem of a tourist destination. This paper systematically reviews the relevant literature on TEF, TCF and TWF, analyses and summarizes the main progress and failures in the analytical frameworks, research methods, measurement results, environmental impacts and reductions in the tourism footprint. This paper also proposes areas for further developing the tourism footprint research, including unifying the analytical frameworks and boundaries of the tourism footprint, distinguishing the geographical scope of the tourism footprint effectively, improving the process of analyzing the environmental impact of the tourism footprint, measuring the tourism footprint scientifically and roundly, performing space-time calculations of the tourism footprint, and expanding the tourism footprint family by introducing new members. Accordingly, this paper is devoted to the continued study of the tourism footprint.

Decomposition of tourism greenhouse gas emissions: Revealing the dynamics between tourism economic growth, technological efficiency, and carbon emissions

This study proposes an analytical framework for decomposing the national tourism carbon footprint and carbon efficiency to identify the dynamics between economic growth, technological efficiency, and environmental externality. Using the environmentally extended input–output model and decomposition methods, tourism carbon changes are decomposed into the economic factors of total consumption and purchasing patterns, and the production factors of industry input structure and technological improvement. This macro-level approach provides a basis for 1) assessing whether total tourism emissions increase in direct proportion to tourism consumption over time, 2) tracing the underlying determinants and their effects on tourism emissions expansion and eco-efficiency performance, and 3) comparing the carbon performance of the tourism industry against the national average. Based on the example of Taiwan, the results demonstrate that we are a long way from the goal of using the technological efficiencies of production to offset tourism-based carbon emissions.

Quantifying Spanish tourism's carbon footprint: the contributions of residents and visitors: a longitudinal study

This paper develops and explains an input–output model to quantify the carbon footprint linked to residents' and visitors' tourist consumption in the Spanish economy between 1995 and 2007, thus offering a rare longitudinal review of a national carbon footprint. Two measures are calculated: a domestic one similar to the producer responsibility criterion and a total measure that includes imported intermediate and final goods, similar to the consumer responsibility measure. The important role of tourism in Spain explains why its domestic carbon footprint represented 10.6% of total CO2 emissions in 2007. Visiting tourists represented 47% of this figure, households 36%, business tourism represented 14% and public administration expenditures 3%. By industry, transport (26%) was positioned as the highest emitter in 2007, with hotels and restaurants the second (21%) (benefitting indirectly from energy and environmental efficiency improvements over the period). The Spanish reliance on imported oil products and the growing importance of foreign-based air services has caused the total carbon footprint of tourism to increase by more than 100%. Therefore, climate change mitigation plans must include imports, and action must take place through the whole global production chain and in the transport sector, particularly air transport. Future mitigation policies are discussed.

Calculating tourism's carbon footprint: measuring the impact of investments

In this paper, we propose broadening the concept of tourism's carbon footprint to include not only emissions embodied in tourism consumption but also emissions linked to the investments of the tourism sector. The measure proposed, the whole carbon footprint, implies allocating the emissions linked to the production of capital goods required for tourism goods and services to this sector. The omission of investments, e.g., the construction of hotels and infrastructures, leads to an underestimation of the tourism sector's environmental responsibility. The methodology is based on a life cycle assessment input–output (LCA-IO) model that we apply to the Spanish tourism sector for the period of 1995–2007.Our results show that the inclusion of tourism investment in the carbon footprint calculations increases the industry's responsibility by 34% due to the importance of civil infrastructure and construction related to hotels and catering and imported electrical and electronic machinery and transport vehicles. More importantly, we find that the weak improvement in the eco-efficiency of tourism investments (virtual carbon by million euros of tourism services) increases the pressure on the environment of the expansive tourism sector and on claims for mitigation targets that include capital investments.