Estimating transportation-related CO₂ emissions of European city tourism

Abstract

The present study develops a methodology to assess transportation-related CO₂ emissions of European city tourism. In doing so, not only is travel distance considered, but also the chosen transportation modes and the particularities of the different cities’ source markets. The major contribution of this study is the implementation of this learning methodology into a decision support system for destination management organizations of cities. Based on a sample from 2018 of 48 European cities with at least 40 source markets, the range of aggregate transportation-related CO₂ emissions of European city tourism is estimated. Moreover, a longitudinal analysis of the exemplary city of Vienna covering the period of 1990 to 2018 is carried out. Finally, some policy recommendations of how destination management organizations can contribute to make the estimated transportation-related CO₂ emissions even more precise and on how to make European city tourism more environmentally sustainable are drawn.

Keywords:

• City tourism
• CO₂ emissions
• decision support system
• estimation
• transportation mode
• travel distance

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding of this research by Hochschuljubiläumsstiftung der Stadt Wien under the project ID H-288480/2019. They also thank the three anonymous reviewers of this journal, as well as the participants of the 54th TRC Meeting, which took place in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in 2019, and of many other workshops for their helpful comments and suggestions for improvement. Moreover, they express their gratitude towards Davis Gibbs for proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 It should be noted that this sample is only exemplary, and data for more cities (e.g. Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, or Venice) could be extracted from TourMIS, albeit with much less than 40 different source markets. Including cities with data for a smaller number of source markets would increase the proportion of tourism in unspecified markets; therefore, reducing the accuracy of the estimation model.

2 Using general modal split data per source market at the European country level as available, for instance, from Eurostat is not applicable to this methodology, as this would ignore important long-haul source markets and the differences in guest mix shares of the sampled cities.

3 All values for CO₂ emissions per transportation mode are dynamically defined in TourMIS and can easily be adapted when more current values become available (see Figure 2).

4 For total tourist arrivals, real GDP of the world was employed as the usage of source-market-weighted real GDP was characterized by an inferior in-sample model fit.

5 While other variables besides real GDP per source market play an important role in determining CO₂ emissions (e.g., Peeters, 2010), these are not considered for two reasons. First, distance, guest mix share, etc. are already contained in the estimated CO₂ emissions and would otherwise be double-counted. Second, the shortness of the sample does not allow for including more than one additional predictor at a time when a sound forecast evaluation is sought to be carried out.

6 In more detail: AA = in all forms of paid accommodation in city area only; AG = in hotels and similar establishments in city area only; AD = of all visitors (tourists and day visitors) in city area only; AZ = in all forms of accommodation including visiting friends and relatives in city area only; AAS = in all forms of paid accommodation in greater city area; AGS = in hotels and similar establishments in greater city area; ADS = of all visitors (tourists and day visitors) in greater city area; AZS = in all forms of accommodation including visiting friends and relatives in greater city area.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ulrich Gunter

Ulrich Gunter is an Associate Professor and Dean of the Professional School of Modul University Vienna. He is Vice Chair of the Tourism and Hospitality Section of the International Institute of Forecasters.

Karl Wöber

Karl Wöber is a Full Professor and President of Modul University Vienna. He is Chair of the Austrian Private University Conference and President of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism.