Tourist travel has become an important way of rediscovering ourselves, learning about new cultures, rejuvenating our minds and souls and much more. Statistics show that there were 1.3 billion international travelers in 2017, a number that has been growing ever since.
Tourism is a lifeline for many places. The tourism industry contributes to the global GDP more than banking, mining, agriculture and automotive manufacturing. Although the economic contribution of tourism is well-recognized, its impact on the environment and the climate is often overlooked. Many believe that tourism is a “smoke-free industry.”
But tourism is, in fact, very carbon-intensive.
Tourism contributes about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) with regard to providing accommodation, dining, transportation, recreational activities and souvenirs to tourists.
Tourism consumption leads to direct emissions produced by tourism firms like airplanes, or theme parks, and indirect emissions are due to upstream suppliers providing inputs to tourism industries.
An example of indirect emissions is the GHG produced due to international transportation for shipping bottled water from France to the U.S. for the U.S. tourists.
From the perspective of economy and environment, tourism bears a very high environmental cost to destinations. One dollar of tourism earnings produce a carbon footprint that is 25 percent higher than emissions produced through a dollar of earnings across all other sectors.
