Carbon Footprint Evaluation Based on Tourist Consumption toward Sustainable Tourism in Japan

Abstract

The importance of the contribution of tourism to climate change has been noted by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). By combining a process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) and input–output analysis, several researchers have attempted to evaluate the impacts of the tourism industry, as well as its products and services. Indeed, the tourism sector has a wide range of industries, including travel and tours, transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, amusement, souvenirs, etc. However, the existing cases do not show a breakdown of the impact on climate change. In this paper, the carbon footprint (CFP) of the Japanese tourism industry was calculated based on tourist consumption, using the Japanese input–output table and the Japanese tourism industry. We demonstrate that the total emissions were approximately 136 million t-CO2 per year. The contribution ratio of each stage is as follows: Transport 56.3%, Souvenirs 23.2%, Petrol (direct emissions) 16.9%, Accommodation 9.8%, Food and Beverage 7.5%, and Activities 3.0%. Then, in the breakdown, the impacts are in the following order: Air transport 24.7%, Petrol (direct emissions) 16.9%, Accommodation 9.8%, Food and Beverage 7.5%, Petrol 6.1%, Textile products 5.3%, Food items 4.9%, Confectionery 4.8%, Rail transport 3.9%, Cosmetics 1.9%, and Footwear 1.8%. In addition to transportation, this research also highlights the contribution from souvenirs, accommodation, and food and beverages.

Cancelling March Madness exposes opportunities for a more sustainable sports tourism economy

“…This is clear in a number of areas: the greatest contributor to the total by emissions sector was tourist and team travel which accounted for about 80 percent of the total carbon footprint. This result is consistent with other studies that include motorized transport as a part of their models (Cooper, 2020;Edwards et al, 2016;El Hanandeh, 2013;Filimonau et al, 2014;Pereira et al, 2019) because in tourism, the transport of people to their destinations is the largest contributor to the total carbon footprint (Dwyer et al, 2010;Lenzen et al, 2018;Kitamura et al, 2020;see G€ ossling & Schumacher, 2010;Larsson et al, 2018;Debbage & Debbage, 2019;Graver et al, 2019).…”

Carbon Footprint Evaluation of the Business Event Sector in Japan

“…Using this equation, the calculation was extended from cradle-to-gate to cradle-to-grave. Using these calculations, Kitamura et al [42] calculated CFP for tourism in Japan. Based on this result, we compiled a list of GHG emissions of tourism products and services (Appendix A, Table A2).…”

“…Kitamura et al [42], in a Japan case, evaluated "a; inbound tourism, b; overnight stay of domestic tourism, c; day trip of domestic tourism, d; outbound tourism". This case included the products' consumption by participants in business events, but not that by the organizers of each event.…”

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