Comparative Analysis of Per-Tourist and Total Carbon Emissions Generated in Hospitality and Tourism Sectors: Impact on Climate Change and Implications for Economy, Society, and Environment

ABSTRACT

This study explores the implications of per-tourist and total carbon emissions generated across diverse sectors within the hospitality & tourism industry on climate change, as well as their secondary impacts on the economy, society, and environment. Employing a nonlinear framework, we investigate proposed hypotheses using panel data spanning a decade across 16 countries, employing threshold regression and a mediating effect model for analysis. The results reveal distinct nonlinear effects of per-tourist and total carbon emissions from each hospitality & tourism sector on climate change, as well as on the broader domains of the economy, society, and environment. While the total carbon emissions from the transportation sector have the most significant overall impact on climate change, per-tourist carbon emissions originating from the accommodation sector emerge as a more prominent contributor to climate change on a per tourist basis, followed by attractions & others, food & beverage, and transportation sectors. Considering the diverse levels of per-tourist carbon emissions, it becomes evident that the influence of each hospitality & tourism sector on the economy, society, and environment displays notable disparity. These findings emphasize the importance of developing targeted and tailored strategies to address climate change within individual hospitality & tourism sectors, rather than employing a uniform approach across the entire industry.

摘要

这项研究探讨了酒店和旅游业不同部门产生的每位游客和总碳排放量对气候变化的影响,以及它们对经济、社会和环境的次要影响. 采用Tisdell(1987)的非线性框架,我们使用跨越16个国家的十年面板数据,采用阈值回归和中介效应模型进行分析,研究了提出的假设. 研究结果揭示了每个酒店和旅游部门的每位游客和总碳排放量对气候变化以及经济、社会和环境等更广泛领域的明显非线性影响. 虽然交通部门的碳排放总量对气候变化的总体影响最为显著,但住宿部门的每位游客碳排放量对每位游客的气候变化的影响更为突出,其次是景点和其他、食品和饮料以及交通部门. 考虑到每位游客的碳排放水平不同,很明显,每个酒店和旅游部门对经济、社会和环境的影响都存在显著差异. 这些发现强调了在各个酒店和旅游部门制定有针对性和量身定制的应对气候变化战略的重要性,而不是在整个行业采用统一的方法.

KEYWORDS:

• Accommodation
• climate change
• economy
• society
• environment
• nonlinear impacts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Due to data availability, the relevant indicators for hospitality & tourism sectors other than transportation, accommodation, and food & beverage cannot be precisely extracted. Therefore, we have grouped all other sectors under the category “attractions and others.”