TOUR1004

Economics for
Tourism, Hospitality &
Events

Week 12
Tourism and environments

Ya-Yen Sun
UQ Business School
This week
– The market failure problem of tourism
– Tourism carbon footprint
– Mitigation measures

government

tourism
business

tourist
Government -
Don’ts
• Continue the pro-growth strategy
• Extensively develop long-haul
international markets

Barriers
• Our mindset is primarily driven by
economic outcome

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/30/national/japan-doubles-overseas-tourist-target-2020/
Global tourism leaders’ views on climate change
mitigation
• Agreement
GHG emissions need to be reduced.
Continued growth in tourism is considered
inevitable.
“It is a bit of denialism, you know some
people will say ‘oh, the technology will
come and fix it’[ …] and also a bit of
NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard. ‘Yes, I am
very worried, but I really cannot be
bothered with this myself, because my
company is growing.’
• Disagreement
Fundamentally different positions on importance
of climate regulation, and the role of
governments in leading decarbonisation efforts.
Differing views on the importance and reliance
on market based mechanisms.
I think to set a sector-wide
target [… ] would be very
complicated. [ … ] I just think
setting a target throughout
tourism would be ill-advised.”
Government -
Dos
• Establish national tourism carbon footprint
inventory
• Link every tourism strategy with emission
data
• Set emission reduction target for businesses
(global, 5% annually reduction for next 30
years is required for -70% by 2050 to reach
1.5oC)

Aspiration case
• NZ national tourism emission analysis
 The first-ever comprehensive national tourism
emission analysis – New Zealand

GDP ($ million) GHG emissions (tons) Tourism

Financing, insurance, 58,470 Tourism 4,420
• It produces the largest energy-related CO2
real estate and
business services
emissions
Wholesale and retail 15,368 Petroleum, basic 1,716
trade chemical and rubber • Its emissions expands at approximately half
product manufacturing the speed of growth in tourism expenditure
Health care and social 13,018 Dairy product 1,692
assistance manufacturing • It produces 2.3 times more emissions to
earn one dollar than the national average
Construction 11,893 Construction 1,491
• Its carbon efficiency improves at an annual
Tourism 9,512 Road transport (non- 1,490
rate of 2.8%, lower than the national
tourism) average of 3.7%.
Business -

Dos
Reduce direction emissions
1. Understand, benchmark and reduce

Aspiration case
Hotel Footprinting Tool

https://www.hotelfootprints.org/footprinting
Business -
Dos
Reduce indirect emissions
• Understand impacts from the supplier
(barriers: difficult to measure & control)
• Rely on the certification system to
identify green suppliers
• Use common knowledge (e.g., local
source, local produce or vegetarian
meals……)
 Aspiration case: Responsible Travel

Company Company Company Company

A B C D

Vis Island, Scillé, Catalonia, Winkleigh,

Location Croatia France Spain Devon, UK

Number of total nights stayed 840 516 4,575 3,414

% of renewable energy 0% 0% 2% 27%

Emissions per room night (kg) 9.1 10.7 11.7 7.7

Food related emissions per
room night (kg) 5.7 22.1 NA 0

Identifying the indirect emissions can

change the priority of our actions!
Business -

Dos
Encourage customer pro-environmental
behavior

Aspiration case: Nudging

How to make families eat up everything that have taken
from the breakfast buffet – reducing plate waste by 34%:
https://youtu.be/ve9rMHhiVhI

How to get 42% of hotel guest to voluntarily waive their How to reduce daily routine hotel room cleans by
(mostly unnecessary) daily routine room clean: 63% by changing defaults:
https://youtu.be/8-GTek-Rwtg https://youtu.be/tpX0spjpE8M

How to reduce the use of fancy thick cotton serviettes that

have to be washed and ironed every day by 95%:
https://youtu.be/td3CGCZFgpc
Tourist -

1. Change travel behavior Which airline is the most and

§ Travel less, choose destination closer to home and least carbon efficient for the
extend the length of stay long-haul flights (more than
§ Switching to environmental–friendly transportation 3.800 km)?
mode – use more bicycle, rail, and car.

1. Air Canada
2. Understand your footprint, understand 2. KLM
the business footprint and make an 3. Air China
informed decision 4. Lufthansa
5. American Airlines
6. Emirates
Imagine a booking platform
(expedia.com; flightscanner.com)
that displays route, time, ticket price,
class AND the airline carbon
performance.

Source:
atomosfair
Tourist
1. Support carbon tax
Study indicates that the average annual growth rate of CO2 emissions has been around 2
percentage points lower in countries that have had a carbon price compared to countries without.

2. Support carbon offset

Climate Passport kiosks

San Francisco Airport
Mitigation measures about tourism
negative externality
1. Do you think that the tourism industry is a non-polluting industry? Tourism
is carbon intensive.
2. Do you think tourism produce more missions per dollar GDP than the
average of manufacturing sectors? Yes, 25% more carbon per unit GDP.
3. Do you think your travel is related to the global climate change? Yes
4. What can you do?