(538m) Social and Environmental Assessments of Tourism: A Case-Study

The global tourism sector is facing increasing challenges regarding its negative environmental impacts and overall future sustainability outlook, as tourism and its related activities are currently responsible for roughly 12 percent of the global greenhouse gas footprint. Such significant impacts are partially based on the sheer size of the tourism sector itself, which already involves over one billion global international tourist arrivals in terms of overnight stays, and is projected to grow to around 1.8 billion arrivals by 2030 [1]. Despite a multitude of countries around the world depending on tourism as one of its main economic pillars, the steady growth of global tourism has also brought disadvantages. Aside from greenhouse gas emissions as a result from both direct and indirect process impacts, the tourist sites themselves are affected by loss of biodiversity or disruptions in food and water availability, and huge amounts of plastic and other waste. Additionally, tourism brings notable impacts in the social sphere, where it can cause a negative shift in demographics and culture, affecting the traditions and heritage of tourist destinations. The evidence on environmental and social impacts of tourism therefore points toward the need to take action in transforming this sector towards a more green and sustainable enterprise for the future.

Global tourist transport has been shown to be by far the most significant contributor, particularly due to the share of negative impacts caused by air transport over lengthy distances. The areas of accomodation and leisure activities mainly involve energy consumption in hotels, resorts and other sectors within the tourism package, while the environmental impacts of food consumption are heavily dependent on the tourism destination and local food consumption patterns. Additionally, the impacts of tourism are seen in the substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste generated by tourists. All the areas described offer opportunities for the tourism sector to implement sustainable alternatives and commit to more environmentally friendly practice.

The four key areas of tourism are highlighted in this work, where the aim is to evaluate both environmental and social impacts generated per tourist and additionally provide mitigation strategies to reduce impacts. Environmental and social impacts are evaluated on a life cycle basis, encompassing the entirety of tourist activities from the point of departure to the return from the trip. Improvements for specific areas of tourism are suggested, where particular focus is towards alternative modes of transport, efficient energy use and dietary choices. A novel application of both life cycle assessment (LCA) and social assessment to the case of tourism is presented, providing a holistic outlook on the sustainability of tourism.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Republic of Slovenia (project No. 5442-1/2018/106), the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P2-0412 and P2-0421 and project No. J7-3149) and Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under project No. 21-45726L.

References

[1] V. Halleux, Sustainable tourism: The environmental dimension. European parliamentary Research Service, March 17 briefing, 2017. <europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2017/599327/EPRS_BRI(2017)599327_EN.pdf>. (Accessed 7 April 2022).