Tourism and transport in New Zealand : implications for energy use

Abstract

Securing and conserving our long term future is the number one objective of the recently released New Zealand Tourism Strategy (2001). Previous research showed that an essential impediment to achieving sustainable tourism is the heavy use of transport by tourists and the environmental impacts resulting from this travel (Müller, 1992; Gössling, 2000). The associated energy use is a major concern, since it does not only undermine the goal of efficient resource use as outlined by the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010, but it also contributes to the failure of New Zealand in achieving its goals set by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. This report discusses previous research in this field, describes the present transport sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand, discusses the supply of tourism transport infrastructure, and provided senergy intensities of main New Zealand transport modes. Different transport modes are hypothetically juxtaposed on an analysis of a journey from Christchurch to Dunedin. Suggestions for reducing transport energy use are discussed. Clearly, to achieve the stakes set by both the Tourism (Tourism Strategy Group, 2001) and the Energy Strategy (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority [EECA], 2001), transport of tourists plays a critical role.