Study reports that global tourism accounts for 8 per cent of carbon emissions.
India has the world’s fourth-largest carbon footprint from tourism, including business travel, after the USA, China and Germany.
With 909 million tonnes of carbon emitted, irrespective of national or international travel, American travellers top the tourism carbon footprint ranking. While the study suggests India being fourth largest in the world for tourism related carbon footprint, Indians have been shown to produce nearly four times less carbon as compared to Americans. They produce 240 million tonnes from Indians, irrespective of where they travel.
The study is the first to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from all tourism activities, from air travel to shopping, eating in restaurants, local transportation and so on.
As per the study, domestic travel accounts for larger portions of carbon footprints than foreign travel in each of the countries in point.
Global movements study also revealed that travelling is largely an indulgence of the ones with high incomes and that the emissions linked to tourism mainly flowed between high-income countries.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) suggests that travellers should choose short-haul destinations, increase use of public transport and lower their use of aviation to improve their energy efficiency.
The research has also been welcomed by the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC), which has agreed that the industry’s efforts to curb tourism related carbon emissions have failed.
Courtesy: B2B Travel News , New Delhi