The Carbon Impact of International Tourists to an Island Country

Kang-Ting Tsai, Tzu-Ping Lin, Yu-Hao Lin, Chien-Hung Tung and Yi-Ting Chiu
Additional contact information
Kang-Ting Tsai: Program of Landscape and Recreation, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd., Taichung 402, Taiwan
Tzu-Ping Lin: Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Rd., Tainan 701, Taiwan
Yu-Hao Lin: Program of Landscape and Recreation, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd., Taichung 402, Taiwan
Chien-Hung Tung: Program of Landscape and Recreation, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd., Taichung 402, Taiwan
Yi-Ting Chiu: Department of Leisure and Recreation, National Formosa University, 64 Wunhua Rd., Yunlin 632, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Taiwan, located in the East Asia, is an island country with limited natural resources. To increase economic growth and reduce CO 2 emission levels, the Taiwanese government is promoting a sustainable low-carbon tourism industry. This study investigated the CO 2 emission coefficient of tourist activities and identified the CO 2 emissions (CE) patterns of international visitors to Taiwan. The total CO 2 emission per visitor without considering international transportation was estimated using a questionnaire. The total CO 2 emission comprises the CO 2 emission of transportation, the CO 2 emission of accommodation, and the CO 2 emission of tourist activities. The results suggest that more convenient public transportation might help to reduce the total CO 2 emission. Without considering CO 2 emission from international air travel, in contrast to many non-island countries where CO 2 emission of transportation is the main contributor to total CO 2 emission, the CO 2 emission of accommodation was the main contributor to total CO 2 emission in Taiwan. To reduce the CO 2 emission of accommodation, the Taiwanese government should improve the energy-use efficiency of devices in tourist hotels and promote bed-and-breakfast accommodations with low CO 2 emission coefficients. Visitors enjoyed culinary journeys and shopping, both of which are activities that contribute highly to the CO 2 emission of tourist activities because of their high CO 2 emission coefficients.

Keywords: carbon emission; transportation; accommodation; tourist activity; low-carbon tourism; sustainable tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1386/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1386/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1386-:d:144011

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().