Where Have Carbon Emissions Gone? Evidence of Inbound Tourism in China

Yingying Hu ()
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Yingying Hu: School of Management, China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: Tourism is emerging as an important contributor sector to carbon emissions. As inbound tourism is the main component of tourism activities, measuring and evaluating the carbon footprint of inbound tourism can help achieve low-carbon development of the global tourism industry. Based on the carbon footprint theory, this study describes the distribution and transfer path of China’s inbound tourism carbon footprint by using the China multi regional input-output model embedded in the inbound tourism satellite account. The results reveal that embodied carbon emissions (ECE) of inbound tourism is higher than direct carbon emissions, and carbon emissions intensity is close to the average economic. Therefore, it is difficult for inbound tourism to achieve the dual goals of stimulating economic growth and emission mitigation. The ECE of inbound tourism has obvious inter-provincial transfer characteristics. Inner Mongolia and Guangdong are the largest provinces with net outflows/inflows of ECE, with net outflows of 1.47 million tons and inflows of 2.66 million tons. Besides, the ECE mainly flows from the northeast and northwest regions to the southern and eastern regions. From the perspective of industry transfer, 72.2% of ECE of inbound tourism comes from the power sector.

Keywords: carbon footprint; value chain; inbound tourism; provincial transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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