Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism: Carbon Mitigation by Environmentally Certified Tourism Enterprises

Abstract

travel-related activities that contribute to climate change. In response, government departments and tourism agencies have supported carbon mitigation strategies based on ecoefficiency actions to reduce GHG emissions and operational costs for the travel CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: CARBON MITIGATION BY ENVIRONMENTALLY CERTIFIED TOURISM ENTERPRISESHEATHER ZEPPEL AND NARELLE BEAUMONT Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, AustraliaTourism is susceptible to the impacts of climate change on destinations and businesses, but also contributes to the causes of climate change via greenhouse gas emissions from travel. This article reports on carbon mitigation actions by environmentally certified tourism enterprises in Queensland, Australia. The survey results profile attitudes to climate change, emissions auditing, carbon mitigation actions, and motives for emissions reduction. The study revealed that most operators believed climate change was an important issue for tourism and had implemented a range of carbon mitigation actions in energy, water, and waste reduction. The most popular actions were energy efficiency and reducing energy use, while less popular measures were adopting renewable energy and carbon offsetting. Tourism operators preferred lower cost actions that were easy to implement and would provide cost savings. The key motives for tourism operators implementing these carbon actions related to ecological responsibility and business competitiveness via cost savings and differentiating their business as "climate friendly." These motivations align with general business principles driving the implementation of socially and environmentally responsible practices by companies. The findings suggest that environmentally certified tourism enterprises now consider emissions reduction measures to be an integral part of sustainable tourism development.Key words: Climate change; Carbon mitigation; Environmental certification; Ecoefficiency actions; Sustainable tourism IntroductionThe tourism industry is susceptible to the physical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change on destinations and businesses. Tourism also generates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport and 162 ZEPPEL AND BEAUMONT could be adopted (WTO & UNEP, 2008 (WTTC, 2009). However, as noted by Scott (2011), these are "aspirational" targets that, without specific plans for achieving them, may be interpreted largely as rhetoric.In Australia, the national government responded to this issue by establishing a National Tourism and Climate Change Taskforce, producing a national action plan for tourism and climate change, a climate change guide for tourism operators supplemented by industry workshops, and a tourism strategy that included climate change issues (Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism [DRET], 2008[DRET], , 2009[DRET], , 2011. National, state, and territory government tourism agencies in Australia have also responded by providing information on climate ch...

Application of the European tourism indicator system (ETIS) for sustainable destination management. Lessons from County Clare, Ireland

“…While results from this study share similar results among tourism enterprises in county Clare. Several studies have discussed various barriers faced by tourism businesses in adopting carbon mitigation schemes (Carmody and Zeppel, 2009;Nelson, 2010;Zeppel and Beaumont, 2014). Future research on mitigation of climate change within the Irish tourism industry should be initiated and the relationship between energy consumption per tourist night and level of service and occupancy rate in county Clare should be investigated.…”

Employing Ecotourism Opportunities for Sustainability in the Aral Sea Region: Prospects and Challenges

“…Such themes as the supply side of ecotourism remain under-studied, and further research is required to expand this important field of knowledge [36]. Interestingly, the call for more research on the supply side of ecotourism was first made in 1999 (see a seminal study by Sirakaya et al [37]), but the response to this call has apparently been insufficient to date [38]. Indeed, the review paper by Weaver and Lawton [35] suggests that the bulk of supply-side studies have focused on ecotourism venues operating, in particular, on protected areas.…”

Using Big Data to Measure Tourist Sustainability: Myth or Reality?

“…The discussion on the synergies between science and policy in choosing a set of indicators to properly monitor sustainability [34,35] expresses the relevance of incorporating both scientific principles and participatory planning processes [36][37][38][39][40]. Therefore, this is a political as well as a technical choice that must focus on establishing significant indicators to assess sustainability in the social, economic and environmental dimensions [41][42][43].…”

“…While academia is criticised for concentrating their efforts on the production of literature instead of the production of practical tools, public agencies are accused of misusing the concept to justify tourism development. In spite of these criticisms, there is a recognition of the need to move towards a more sustainable horizon, as well as the important role that the business sector will play in its effective implementation [18,37,38].…”

“…This kind of instrument increases the visualisation of environmental issues, thus raising awareness among the general public, and as a consequence, enhancing the visitor's behaviour once at their destination. Therefore, they contribute to the need to mitigate tourism impacts on climate change to ensure environmental sustainability, as widely addressed [38,52,72,73].…”