Indirect tourism transport : a proposed carbon footprint assessment

Abstract

As the tourism industry’s greenhouse gas emission impacts on the global environment is increasing, carbon accounting is fast becoming a vital tool for establishing the magnitude of impacts and identifying the players responsible. The unique trip characteristics of private and commercial vehicles in tourist destinations makes it difficult to assess real impact levels. This paper proposes a methodology for assessing the carbon footprint of Indirect Tourism Transport (i.e. delivery and service vehicle operations), serving the tourism industry. It described a unique data collection approach from tourism businesses and transport operators, and how this information is processed and used to assess the tourism industry’s supply chain carbon footprint. Distance and weight of load delivered to the customer are considered the variables that determine carbon footprint in this methodology. The methodology could be used to account for tourism industry’s share of total carbon footprint of commercial vehicle operations, on the basis of regional, national or international tourist destinations in order to establish the sustainability of the industry’s indirect transport. It could also act as a first generation forecasting model for assessing future carbon footprint projections, to be associated with tourism transport for tourist destination planning purposes.