Climate Change and Tourism - UNEP - Division of Technology ...

UNWTO, 9 July 2008
Emissions from Tourism: Status and Trends
Table 11.5 Overview of estimated number of trips, guest nights and CO 2 emissions from tourism
accommodation, 2005
Tourist trips (overnight) bn
Total Domestic International
total 4,7 4,0 0.75
in hotel and similar (H & S) 1,7 1,3 0.37
other CE & private 3,0 2,7 0.37
tourists in H & S (% ) 36 33 50
Guest-nights bn
total 19,8 13,7 6,1
in hotel 5,9 3,8 2,2
other CE & private 13,9 9,9 4,0
Room-nights in H & S bn
total 3,9 2,5 1,4
avrg person per room 1,5 1,5 1,5
Average nights nights
total 4,2 3,4 8,2
in hotel 3,5 2,8 5,8
other CE & private 4,6 3,7 10.6
CO 2 emissions
total CO 2 emissions (Mt) 274 158 117
average CO 2 per night (kg) 13,8 11,5 19,0
average CO 2 emissions (t/trip) 0,058 0,039 0,156
a) H & S: hotel and similar establishments
b) CE: collective establishments, except for hotel and similar, this includes campsites, rented apartments, bungalows, etc.
c) Green: data estimated from UNWTO country data or from external sources; yellow: approximated data
d) Half of domestic guest nights is assumed to be from developing source markets and half from high income source markets, which
are assumed to have produced 4 kg of CO 2 and 19 kg of CO 2 per guest night respectively. The term ‘high income’ is used for the
group of countries designated by the World Bank as ‘high income economies’ (see http://go.worldbank.org/K2CKM78CC0).
11.1.4 Other Tourism Activities
Tourists visit attractions and participate in a wide range of activities at the destination. Emissions caused
by these activities vary widely between various categories of attractions, such as museums or theme
parks, outdoor-oriented activities and events (e.g., sport events or concerts) or shopping. Data on energy
use and emissions caused by these tourist activities are rarely available, except for some larger attractions
like theme parks or ski areas. One exception is a study of the energy use and emissions related to tourist
activities in New Zealand. 648
With no systematic international data on tourism activities being available, an average energy use of
250 MJ of energy for ‘other activities’ during an average international trip was estimated at about 40 kg
of CO 2 emissions. 649 This calculation includes local transport. While 250 MJ may be a suitable estimate
for international leisure tourists, shorter and less activity-oriented business trips are likely to be less
energy-intense, and are here assumed to be one fifth of this value (50 MJ per trip). For visit friends and
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