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Abstract
Eco-efficiency reflects a combined study for ecological and economic issues. It emphasises the balance between economic development and environmental protection. And greenhouse gas emissions have become a major global environmental issue; therefore the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions related to tourist activities has become central to environmental impact studies. To measure greenhouse gas emissions resulting from tourism activities, an eco-efficiency model was put forward in this paper. The eco-efficiency of an eight-day itinerary tour product in Shangri-La, a typical tourist destination in Yunnan of China, was calculated and analysed as an example. The findings indicate that there is great difference in eco-efficiencies among the various tourism products; both transportation and catering were the key elements influencing the eco-efficiency of the tourism itinerary product; influences on the eco-efficiency of the tourism itinerary products mainly come from economic value and CO2-e emissions. Economic value includes expenditures for package-price items and self-help items. CO2-e emissions primarily reflected transportation, tourism product combinations, and the types of energy. In response to these findings, some limits for this study were discussed.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Zhong Linsheng for his helpful suggestions and comments. The project is financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40561012): The ecological footprint study of tourism itinerary production in Shangri-La, Yunan Province of China.