Balancing Tourism’s Economic Benefit and CO 2 Emissions: An Insight from Input–Output and Tourism Satellite Account Analysis

Ling Li, Jingjing Li, Ling Tang and Shouyang Wang
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Ling Li: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Jingjing Li: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Ling Tang: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Shouyang Wang: Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: To balance tourism’s economic benefit and environmental pollution, this paper proposes an analytical approach by using the input–output (IO) model and tourism satellite accounts (TSA). Four steps are taken: (1) the setting of system boundaries according to the combined IO and TSA database; (2) economic benefit estimation for tourism income, sectoral multipliers and inter-sector linkages; (3) environmental pollution estimation of direct and indirect CO 2 emissions; and (4) a policy analysis to balance the economic benefit and CO 2 emissions (in terms of reducing the CO 2 emissions intensity) in tourism-related sectors. In the case of Beijing, some interesting insights can be obtained. Beijing’s tourism sectors experienced a fast economic growth and a clear decrease in CO 2 emissions during 2007–2012, with the former having a greater absolute change rate (particularly for the shopping and sightseeing sectors). In all tourism sectors (except for transportation), the indirect CO 2 emissions were over three times greater than the direct CO 2 emissions. Transportation was a leading contributor to both the economic benefit (representing 91.65% of tourism income in 2012) and to environmental pollution (representing 38.75% of tourism-related CO 2 emissions). The detailed findings regarding the industrial and energy structures offer insightful policies for a high-benefit and low-emissions development of tourism.

Keywords: tourism; CO 2 emissions; input–output (IO); tourism satellite account (TSA); Beijing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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