Is there a “environmentally friendly” tourism?

Periodically a journalist (them again!) exposes that a travel agent offers some “environmentally friendly” tour packages. Attentively reading the article allows to realize that all it is about is that tourist will have to pick up their litter, or will be polite with the autochthones.

It might also be mentioned, sometimes, that the hotel will have a solar panel on the roof, or that the luxury suite built next to the lagoon has been voluntarily kept low so that it is harmoniously integrated in the landscape.

Still, the most “eco-friendly” tourism is not necessarily where every journalist would expect it. If we stick to greenhouse gases emissions (which correspond, more or less, to the fossil fuel consumption), one has better go camping in the crowd near the sea-side…

Greenhouse gases emissions, in kg carbon equivalent, generated by the holidays of four French persons, depending on the destination (we assume they travel from France, of course !).

However the total for 2 people, except for skiing and hotel in Marocco, would be about the same (refer to hypotheses below).
It appears that modernity is intensive in emissions : skiing, recent holidays rentals, and planes are more modern than camping, caravans, or old family houses…..

The red bar represents the maximum CO2 emissions per person and per year that have to be achieved in order to stabilize CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

Sources : Jancovici pour IFEN, 2004.

Actually, from the climate’s point of view, as soon as one gets into a plane “it’s lost”, as the little chart below will show. Picking up one’s litter, regarding the climate problem, is totally secondary….

Greenhouse gases emissions per passenger flying from or to Paris (in kg carbon equivalent), depending on the class, for a couple a destinations.

The red bar represents the maximum CO2 emissions per person and per year that have to be achieved in order to stabilize CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

Obviously an efficient action against climate change is not compatible with a generalized air travel.

Sources : Jancovici/ADEME, from Carbon inventory

And if there is something for which no-one can say “I can’t do any other way”, one of the most often heard sentences as soon as a change in the consumption habits is discussed, it is definitely tourism ! And the above result explains, among other elements, why “nature lovers” are not necessarily ecologists…

Detail of hypotheses used for the calculations that produced the chart at the top of the page

The table below lists the detailed hypotheses that have been used t calculate the emissions by nature of holidays shown on the chart at the top of the page. Please note that these hypotheses are representative of the “average French” and that the result does not reflect any situation of the same nature. For example, if a Dutch family goes to Spain, the distance traveled for the return trip will be closer to 2500 km than to 1000 km. Hence the totals below are indicative, and should not be considered as valid results no matter what.

The following items are not included in the calculations, for they are considered not to be different during the holidays than during the rest of the year :

• food,

• purchases of manufactured products (this assumption might be a little bold regarding clothes, because clothes that are bought just for the holidays might represent a significant fraction of overall cloth sales…),

• sanitary hot water

Totals have been systematically calculated for 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks.